LIFE    AND    LETTERS   OF 
HERBERT     SPENCER 

VOLUME     II 


HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WORKS. 


SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


(1.)  FIRST  PRINCIPLES 92.00 

I.  The  Unknowable.  II.  Laws  of  the  Knowable. 

(2.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY.    Vol.  1 2.00 

I.  The  Data  of  Biology.  II.  The  Inductions  of  Biology. 

III.  The  Evolution  of  Life. 

(3.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY.     Vol.  II.       .       .       .2.00 
IV.  Morphological  Development.    V.  Physiological  Development. 

VI.  Laws  of  Multiplication. 

(4.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGY.    Vol.  I.       .       .    2.00 
I.  The  Data  of  Psychology.  III.  General  Synthesis. 

II.  The  Inductions  of  Psychology.        IV.  Special  Synthesis. 

V.  Physical  Synthesis. 

(5.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOLOGY.    Vol.11.       .       .    2.00 
VI.  Special  Analysis.  VIII.  Congruities. 

VII.  General  Analysis.  IX.  Corollaries. 

(6.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY.    Vol.  I.     ...    2.00 
I.  The  Data  of  Sociology.        II.  The  Inductions  of  Sociology. 

III.  The  Domestic  Relations. 
(T.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY.    Vol.11.    .       .       .2.00 

IV.  Ceremonial  Institutions.  V.  Political  Institutions. 

(8.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY.    Vol.  III.  .       .       .2.00 
VI.  Ecclesiastical  Institutions.         VII.  Professional  Institutions. 

VIII.  Industrial  Institutions. 

(9.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ETHICS.    Vol.  I.  ...    2.00 

I.  The  Data  of  Ethics.  II.  The  Induction  of  Ethics. 

III.  The  Ethics  of  Individual  Life. 

(10.)  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ETHICS.    Vol.  II 2.00 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  Social  Life  :  Justice. 

V.  The  Ethics  of  Social  Life  :  Negative  Beneficence. 
VI.  The  Ethics  of  Social  Life  :  Positive  Beneficence. 

ESSAYS,  SCIENTIFIC,  POLITICAL,  AND  SPECULATIVE. 

3vols 6.00 

SOCIAL  STATICS.  The  Man  versus  The  State  .  .  .  .2.00 
STUDY  OF  SOCIOLOGY.  (No.  5,  Int.  Scientific  Series)  .  .  1.50 

EDUCATION Cloth,  1.25 

VARIOUS  FRAGMENTS, Cloth,  1.25 

FACTS  AND  COMMENTS  .  .  .  12mo.  Cloth,  Net,  1.20 

The  above  18  vote. 12mo.  Cloth,  33.00 

AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  .  .  2  vols.  8vo.  Illus.  Cloth,  Net,  5.50 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,   NEW  YORK. 


LIFE  AND   LETTERS   OF 
HERBERT     SPENCER 


BY 

DAVID   DUNCAN,  LL.D. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 

IN    TWO    VOLUMES 
VOLUME    II 


D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
NEW   YORK  MCMVIII 


50959 


COPYRIGHT,  1908,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Published  May,  1908 


J3 
6,5 


CONTENTS 

VOL.   II 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXI.    ALTRUISM  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

(January,    1892— June,   1893) 1 

XXII.    LATTER-DAY  CONTROVERSIES  (November,  1889 

—October,   1895) 26 

XXIII.  COMPLETING    THE    SYNTHETIC    PHILOSOPHY 

(June,  1893— November,  1896) 58 

XXIV.  CONGRATULATIONS    (November,   1896 — Janu- 

ary, 1901) 96 

XXV.    REVISION   OF   Biology   AND  First   Principles 

(October,  1895— April,  1900) 115 

XXVI.    INORGANIC  EVOLUTION    155 

XXVII.    His  LAST  BOOK  (July,  1900— April,  1902) ...     186 
XXVIII.     THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  (April,  1902— December, 

1903)     205   J 

XXIX.    CHARACTERISTICS    AND    PERSONAL  REMINIS- 
CENCES           246 

XXX.    SPENCER'S     PLACE     IN     THE     HISTORY     OF 

THOUGHT   277 

APPENDIX  A.  "PHYSICAL  TRAITS  AND  SOME  SE- 
QUENCES." By  Herbert  Spencer 295 

APPENDIX  B.  "THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS."  By  Herbert 

Spencer  304 

Y 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

APPENDIX  C.  LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS.  . .  366 
APPENDIX  D.  ACADEMIC  AND  OTHER  HONOURS  OFFERED 

TO  HERBERT  SPENCER 382 

APPENDIX  E.  UNPUBLISHED  LETTER  ON  THE  NEBULAR 

HYPOTHESIS    385 

INDEX  .  ,     389 


LIST  OF  FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOL.   II 

FACING 
PAGE 

HERBERT  SPENCER,  FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN  AT  THE 

AGE  OF  SEVENTY-THREE Frontispiece 

THOMAS  HENRY  HUXLEY  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 28 

JOHN  TYNDALL 62 

HERBERT  SPENCER,  FROM  THE  PAINTING  BY  SIR  HUBERT 

VON  HERKOMER,  R.A 112 

SPENCER'S  STUDY  AND  BEDROOM  AT  No.  5  PERCIVAL  TER- 
RACE, BRIGHTON 218 

HERBERT  SPENCER'S  TOMB  IN  HIGHGATE  CEMETERY 234 

SIB  CHARLES  LYELL 310 


vn 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS 

OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

VOLUME  II 


CHAPTER  XXI 

ALTRUISM  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 
(January,  1892— June,  1893) 

THE  several  parts  of  the  Principles  of  Ethics  were 
not  written  with  that  adherence  to  the  order  laid  down 
in  the  original  programme  which  had  characterised  the 
earlier  volumes  of  the  series.  "  The  Data  "  had  been 
given  to  the  world  in  1879,  under  the  fear  that  his 
health  might  give  way  completely  before  he  could  reach 
it  in  ordinary  course.  Ten  years  after  he  again  turned 
aside  from  the  Sociology  to  write  "  Justice."  Many 
things  had  happened  during  the  decade  showing  how 
crude  and  distorted  were  the  ideas  entertained  on  this 
subject.  Moreover,  coinciding  as  it  did  to  a  large  ex- 
tent with  the  more  systematic  part  of  Social  Statics,  re- 
specting parts  of  which  his  opinion  had  changed,  the 
publication  of  "  Justice  "  was  desirable,  both  in  vindi- 
cation of  his  consistency,  and  as  a  corrective  to  the  con- 
clusions which,  rightly  or  (as  he  thought)  wrongly,  were 
being  drawn  from  the  earlier  work.  This  Part  being 
1 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

off  his  hands  about  midsummer,  1891,  he  set  about  writ- 
ing the  remaining  Parts.  "  The  Inductions  of  Ethics  " 
and  "  The  Ethics  of  Individual  Life  "  were  issued  in 
June,  1892,  thus  completing  the  first  volume;  "  Negative 
Beneficence  "  and  "  Positive  Beneficence  " — the  con- 
cluding parts  of  the  second  volume — being  published  by 
midsummer  of  the  following  year. 

To  guard  himself  "  from  those  errors  of  judgment 
that  entail  mischievous  consequences  "  he  solicited  the 
criticisms  of  married  lady  friends  on  whose  judgment  he 
could  rely — Mrs.  Lecky,  Mrs.  Leonard  Courtney,  Mrs. 
Lynn  Linton  and  Mrs.  Meinertzhagen. 

To  MRS.  LECKY. 

18  February,  1892. 

I  want  one  or  two  ladies  to  act  as  Grundyometers,  and 
I  have  thought  of  you  as  an  appropriate  one.  Would 
you  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  what  you  think  of  the  en- 
closed: bearing  in  mind  that  I  am  compelled  by  the 
scheme  of  my  "  Inductions  of  Ethics  "  to  give  a  large 
amount  of  this  detail,  objectionable  though  it  is. 

28  February. — Thank  you  very  much  for  your  letter 
and  its  criticisms.  I  will  attend  to  the  points  you  name, 
and  by  so  doing  avoid  giving  handles  against  me.  I  am 
glad  to  find  that  you  do  not  think  the  general  presenta- 
tion of  the  subject  objectionable. 

27  May. — Again  I  put  your  function  of  Grundyometer 
in  requisition.  Here  are  two  chapters  on  "  Marriage  " 
and  "  Parenthood,"  in  respect  of  which  I  should  like 
the  opinion  of  some  ladies. 

The  Standard  (1  July)  embraced  the  occasion  of  the 
appearance  of  the  completed  first  volume  to  give  an  out- 
line of  the  work  he  had  accomplished  during  the  past 

2 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

fifty  years.  Though  during  the  past  decade  he  had 
"  been  absolutely  at  issue  on  fundamental  principles 
with  what  still  describes  itself  as  the  Liberal  Party," 
he  would  not,  said  the  Standard,  find  much  comfort  in 
calling  himself  a  Conservative,  ' '  for  there,  too,  he  would 
find  what  he  regards  as  the  socialistic  poison  at  work 
with  undeniable,  if  not  equal  activity."  Unqualified 
acceptance  of  his  views  he  did  not  value  very  highly. 
As  he  said  in  March,  1892,  when  thanking  Count  Goblet 
d'Alviella  for  a  copy  of  the  Hibbert  Lectures  on  L'Idee 
de  Dieu: — 

That  there  should  be  a  considerable  amount  of  com- 
munity of  thought  between  us  is,  of  course,  satisfactory 
to  me,  and  that  there  should  be  also  some  points  of  dif- 
ference is  quite  natural.  One  who  adheres  to  a  doctrine 
in  all  its  details  is  commonly  one  who  has  not  much  in- 
dependence and  originality  of  thought,  and  whose  ad- 
hesion therefore  is  of  less  significance. 

The  Ethics  were  laid  under  contribution  for  what  he 
calls  "  a  remarkable  tribute  of  appreciation  " — a  calen- 
dar of  quotations  from  his  works  for  every  day  in  the 
year,  compiled  by  Miss  Julia  R.  Gingell,  and  afterwards 
published  as  a  volume  of  Aphorisms. 

The  unauthorised  publication  of  biographical  details 
by  those  who  came  in  contact  with  him  in  home  life  or 
in  business  was  naturally  looked  upon  as  a  breach  of 
confidence.  This  will  explain  the  earlier  portions  of  the 
following  letter  to  a  former  secretary. 

To  W.  H.  HUDSON. 

27  May,  1892. 

When  some  time  since  I  saw  in  the  Review  of  Reviews 
extracts  from  your  article  in  the  Arena,  I  felt  inclined 
3 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

to  write  to  you  disapprovingly,  expressing  the  opinion 
that  you  ought  not  to  have  published  these  biographical 
details,  reproduced  here,  without  my  assent.  I  did  not 
carry  out  my  intention,  however. 

And  now  that  I  have  met  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  with  the  report  of  your  lecture  delivered  at 
Ithaca,  I  find  myself  called  to  write  rather  in  the  oppo- 
site sense;  feeling  that  what  I  had  before  to  say  in  the 
way  of  disapproval  is  now  more  than  counter-balanced 
by  what  I  have  to  say  in  the  way  of  approbation.  .  .  . 
I  did  not  know,  until  I  came  to  read  this  article,  that 
you  had  so  thoroughly  grasped  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
in  its  nature  and  bearings.  .  .  .  You  have  decidedly 
done  me  a  service  in  putting  forward  so  clearly  the 
origin  and  development  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  and 
by  correcting,  so  far  as  correction  is  possible,  the  er- 
roneous views  that  are  current  respecting  my  relations 
to  Darwin.1 

Notwithstanding  a  formal  refusal  to  write  a  leaflet 
for  the  Ratepayers'  Defence  League  he  eventually 
yielded  and  prepared  a  short  paper  on  ' '  County  Council 
Tyranny  "  in  carrying  out  the  Public  Health  Act.  The 
League  had  played  an  active  and  successful  role  in  the 
School  Board  elections  held  towards  the  end  of  1891. 
He  himself  was  invited  to  allow  himself  to  be  nominated 
as  an  Alderman  by  the  Moderate  Party  in  the  London 
County  Council.  Though  the  invitation  expressly  stated 
that  he  was  not  to  be  asked  ' '  for  any  promise  of  regular 
attendance,"  he  regretted  that  neither  his  work  nor  his 
health  would  permit  of  acceptance.  "  To  sit  out  a  de- 
bate, even  were  I  to  take  no  part  in  it,  would  make 
me  ill  for  a  month."  The  proposed  nomination  having 

1  See  Hudson's  The  Philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer,  chaps,  i. 
and  ii. 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

been  announced  in  the  Press  he  wished  equal  publicity 
to  be  given  to  his  refusal.  The  publication  of  his  letter 
in  the  Standard  (March  14,  1892)  afforded  the  text 
for  a  skit,  headed,  "  The  Philosopher  and  the  Sufficient 
Reason,"  in  the  Saturday  Review. 

He  was  opposed  to  the  extension  through  St.  John's 
Wood  of  the  Manchester,  Sheffield  and  Lincolnshire  Rail- 
way (now  the  Great  Central),  unless  safeguards  were 
adopted  to  protect  residents  from  the  usual  railway 
nuisances. 


To  THE  EARL  OP  WEMYSS. 

1  June,  1892. 

I  have  decided  to  put  down  in  writing  the  essential 
things  I  have  to  say  apropos  of  this  new  line  through  St. 
John's  Wood. 

For  a  generation  past  the  stupid  English  public  have 
tamely  submitted  to  the  enormous  evil  inflicted  upon 
them  by  railway  companies  at  every  large  town  in  the 
kingdom — the  evil  of  peace  disturbed  day  and  night  by 
the  shrieks  of  railway  whistles.  With  their  dull,  bovine 
unintelligence  they  have  let  it  be  tacitly  assumed  that 
railway  companies,  and  even  private  manufacturers, 
have  a  right  to  make  noises  of  any  degree  of  loudness, 
with  any  degree  of  frequency,  at  whatever  times  they 
please.  .  .  .  These  daily  aggressions  on  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people — to  some  serious  and  to  all  annoy- 
ing— ought  to  be  peremptorily  forbidden,  even  had  rail- 
way companies  to  suffer  in  consequence  considerable 
inconvenience  and  cost.  But  they  need  suffer  no  incon- 
venience and  no  cost.  This  immense  nuisance  is  wholly 
superfluous — nay  more  than  that,  it  is  continued  at 
the  same  time  that  there  might  be  a  signalling  system 
far  more  efficient,  while  entailing  relatively  little  an- 
noyance. 

5 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

In  a  note  to  Lord  Wemyss  (30  October,  1892)  de- 
clining an  invitation  to  preside  at  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Ratepayers'  Defence  League,  he  refers  again  to 
the  "  dull,  bovine  unintelligence  "  of  his  countrymen. 

I  quite  agree  with  you  in  your  belief  that  little  or 
nothing  can  be  done  to  check  the  increasing  drift  to- 
wards socialism,  unless  the  ratepayers  can  be  roused  to 
action.  But  unhappily  the  English  people,  and  perhaps 
more  than  others  the  middle  classes,  are  too  stupid  to 
generalize.  A  special  matter  immediately  affecting 
them,  like  the  Trafalgar  Square  meeting,  may  rouse 
them  to  action,  but  they  cannot  be  roused  to  action  by 
enforcing  upon  them  a  general  policy.  The  results  are 
too  remote  and  vague  for  their  feeble  imaginations. 

His  rooted  objection  to  giving  bodies  of  men  powers 
that  may  be  exercised  to  the  detriment  of  individuals 
and  ultimately  to  the  injury  of  the  public  comes  out  in 
a  letter  to  Dr.  T.  Buzzard,  who  had  asked  for  his  signa- 
ture to  a  petition  then  being  signed  with  a  view  to  obtain 
a  charter  for  what  is  now  the  Royal  British  Nurses  As- 
sociation. 

To  T.  BUZZARD. 

15  March,  1892. 

I  greatly  regret  that  I  cannot  yield  to  your  request, 
but  I  cannot  do  so  without  going  contrary  to  my  well- 
established  beliefs. 

If  the  proposed  measure  were  likely  to  end  where  it 
is  now  proposed  to  end  I  should  not  object,  but  I  feel 
a  strong  conviction  that  it  will  not  end  there,  but  will 
be  a  step  towards  further  organization  and  restriction, 
ending  in  a  law  that  no  hired  nurse  may  practice  with- 
out a  certificate — a  restriction  upon  individual  liberty 
to  which  I  am  strongly  opposed. 
6 


ALTKUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

I  have  been  for  many  years  observing  how  changes, 
which  it  was  supposed  would  stop  where  they  were  in- 
tended, have  gone  on  to  initiate  other  changes  far 
greater  than  the  first.  .  .  . 

The  certificating  of  a  nurse  can  insure  only  that  she 
has  a  due  amount  of  technical  knowledge.  It  cannot 
secure  sympathy  and  cannot  secure  unwearying  atten- 
tion. .  .  . 

At  the  present  time  there  is  a  mania  for  uniformity, 
which  I  regard  as  most  mischievous.  Uniformity  brings 
death,  variety  brings  life;  and  I  resist  all  movements 
towards  uniformity. 

Not  only  did  he  object  to  the  obstruction  by  the  Irish 
party  of  useful  legislation  until  Home  Rule  had  been 
granted,1  but  he  objected  also  to  Home  Rule  itself. 

To  THE  EARL  OF  DYSART. 

27  May,  1892. 

I  regret  to  see  by  the  papers  that  you  have  become  a 
Home  Ruler.  In  my  early  days  I  held  the  unhesitating 
opinion  that  self-government  was  good  for  all  people, 
but  a  life  passed  in  acquiring  knowledge  of  societies  in 
all  stages  has  brought  a  decided  change  of  opinion.  The 
goodness  of  these  or  those  institutions  is  purely  relative 
to  the  natures  of  the  men  living  under  them. 

3  June. — The  political  question  I  must  leave  un- 
touched, but  I  enclose  you  some  paragraphs  recently 
taken  from  an  American  publication  respecting  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  in  Chicago,  which  will  serve  to 
illustrate  the  truth  I  before  pointed  out  that  political 
arrangements  are  of  small  value  where  there  does  not 
exist  a  character  adapted  to  them. 

A  memorandum  dated  June,  1892,  describes  a  project 
he  had  entertained  since  1865,  when  he  wrote  the  article 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xvii.,  p.  329. 

7 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

on  "Political  Fetichism."  It  seemed  to  him  "that 
immense  advantage  would  be  derived  if  the  Acts  of  Par- 
liament that  have  been  tried  and  repealed  during  all 
these  past  centuries  could  be  brought  together  in  such 
wise  as  that  any  one  could  easily  see  what  they  were 
passed  for,  what  evils  they  were  to  meet,  what  pro- 
visions were  made,  what  effects  were  produced,  and  what 
are  the  reasons  given  for  repeal,  joined  of  course  with 
the  dates."  Mr.  Wordsworth  Donisthorpe  had  already 
made  an  experiment  in  this  way,  but  the  thing  could 
be  done  satisfactorily  only  if  some  one  would  furnish 
means  of  defraying  the  great  cost.  The  matter  fell 
through  owing  to  the  financial  support  Spencer  had 
hoped  for  not  being  forthcoming.1  How  reluctant  he 
was  to  abandon  it  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
letters. 

TO  W.   DONISTHOEPE. 

30  May,  1892. 

I  should  like  to  see  these  sample  pages  in  a  finished 
form,  with  the  corrections  and  additions  made  as  you 
have  written  them  in  red  ink.  I  am  quite  prepared  to 
be  at  any  such  extra  cost  as  is  entailed  by  making  these 
alterations,  for  I  am  very  desirous  to  preserve  a  finished 
sample  of  the  proposed  tables.  I  do  not  think  I  have 
named  before  what  would  be  an  essential  part  of  the 
thing  when  completed — a  Subject-Index,  so  drawn  up  as 
to  make  it  easy  to  find,  under  each  division  and  sub- 
division and  sub-subdivision,  all  the  various  Acts  of 
Parliament  referring  to  any  one  particular  topic.  The 
enclosed  sketch  will  show  what  I  mean. 

17  June. — Thanks  for  the  final  impression  of  the  table. 
I  think  before  the  type  is  distributed  you  should  cer- 

1  Various  Fragments,  p.  137. 
8 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

tainly  have  a  considerable  number  of  extra  proofs.  .  .  . 
I  suggest  this,  because  I  have  still  hopes  that  something 
may  be  done.  The  thing  is  so  manifestly  important — 
would  be  so  immensely  instructive  and  so  immensely  use- 
ful, that  I  think  if  it  is  properly  put  before  those  in- 
terested there  may  be  the  needful  funds  raised.  ...  It 
might  be  not  amiss  to  send  one  of  these  final  copies  with 
the  additional  columns  to  Mr.  Carnegie,  along  with  some 
explanation  of  the  index  and  mode  of  reference.  I  wish 
you  would  speak  to  Lord  Wemyss  and  the  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, saying  that  you  have  been  doing  the  thing  at  my 
suggestion  and  that  I  think  it  is  supremely  important. 
Pray  let  me  have  the  printer's  bill. 

Life  among  the  trees  and  the  birds,  and  the  com- 
panionship of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Potter's  grandchildren,  had 
been  looked  forward  to  long  before  the  time  came  for 
the  annual  holiday  of  1892.  From  Pewsey  he  wrote 
to  Miss  Baker  in  July : — 

I  get  a  good  deal  of  sitting  out  of  doors  under  the 
trees  bordering  the  croquet  lawn,  where  I  do  the  greater 
part  of  my  work.  .  .  .  Yesterday,  as  I  sat  there,  hear- 
ing from  time  to  time  the  cooing  of  a  wild  dove  which 
had  a  nest  close  at  hand,  I  heard  singing  at  the  same 
time  two  skylarks,  one  woodlark,  two  chaffinches,  a  gold- 
finch, and  a  linnet,  and  at  other  times  there  are  fre- 
quently singing  blackbirds,  thrushes,  robins,  besides 
other  birds  of  which  I  do  not  know  the  names. 

The  return  home  of  Mrs.  Meinertzhagen 's  children, 
who  had  spent  a  few  weeks  with  him  at  Pewsey,  afforded 
an  opportunity  for  setting  forth  one  of  the  applications 
of  what  he  regarded  as  an  important,  but  neglected  sub- 
ject— the  Physics  of  Physiology.1 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  125. 
9 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  MRS.  MEINERTZHAGEN. 

PEWSEY,  20  August,  1892. 

I  was  glad  to  get  your  note  and  to  find  from  it  that 
you  all  thought  that  the  children  were  looking  very 
well.  We  all  thought  here  that  they  had  greatly  im- 
proved during  their  stay. 

May  I  make  a  suggestion  with  respect  to  clothing? 
.  .  .  There  is  an  enormous  amount  of  mischief  conse- 
quent upon  the  uneven  circulation  which  is  caused  by 
uneven  covering.  The  rationale  of  the  matter  is  a  very 
simple  one.  The  vascular  system  constituted  by  the  heart 
and  by  the  ramifying  system  of  blood  vessels  is  a  closed 
cavity  having  elastic  walls.  Of  necessity,  if  you  constrict 
the  walls  of  any  part  of  this  cavity,  the  blood  has  to  go 
somewhere,  and  it  is  thrust  into  some  other  parts  of 
the  cavity.  If  the  constriction  is  great  and  extends  over 
a  considerable  area,  the  pressure  of  blood  throughout 
the  unconstricted  vessels  becomes  great  and  if  any  of 
them  are  feeble  they  dilate,  producing  local  congestion. 
.  .  .  This,  if  the  cold  and  consequent  constriction  are 
long  continued,  is  productive  of  mischief — in  some  cases 
extreme  mischief.  This  is  very  well  shown  by  the  effects 
of  wading  among  salmon-fishers  when  they  are  not  ex- 
tremely strong.  I  have  myself  experienced  the  result 
in  producing  increased  congestion  of  the  brain.  ...  A 
friend  of  mine,  the  late  Prof.  Sellar,  also  a  nervous  sub- 
ject had  to  leave  off  wading  when  salmon  fishing,  be- 
cause it  forthwith  produced  palpitation  of  the  heart. 
.  .  .  The  internal  organs  of  the  body  are  the  parts  which 
have  their  blood-vessels  unduly  distended  by  the  pres- 
sure, and  if  any  of  them  are  feebler  than  the  rest,  more 
or  less  disturbance  of  function  results.  In  one  case,  and 
a  most  common  one,  there  may  be  congestion  of  the 
respiratory  membranes  and  a  cold  or  a  cough,  but  in 
other  cases  the  congestion  is  in  the  alimentary  canal  and 
some  bowel  attack  results.  .  .  .  The  thing  to  be  aimed 
at  in  clothing  is  such  a  distribution  of  covering  as  shall 
keep  all  parts  evenly  warmed.  .  .  . 
10 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

Excuse  my  long  lecture,  but  whenever  I  see  what 
seems  to  me  an  evil  I  cannot  avoid  making  an  effort 
to  rectify  it. 

Leading  Japanese  statesmen,  resident  in  or  visiting 
London,  were  wont  to  consult  him  on  matters  bearing 
on  the  changes  their  country  was  passing  through.  He 
was  not  without  misgivings  when  he  thought  of  the 
risks  incident  to  the  coming  together  of  an  oriental  and 
an  occidental  civilisation.  As  regards  internal  affairs 
he  was  impressed  with  the  danger  of  granting  political 
power  at  once  to  a  people  hitherto  accustomed  to  despotic 
rule.  With  reference  to  external  or  international  af- 
fairs, he  counselled  a  policy,  not  of  isolation,  but  of  re- 
sistance to  interference  by  foreigners.  This,  it  must  be 
remembered,  was  long  before  Japan  had  proved  herself 
able  to  hold  her  own  against  a  European  power.  What 
was  present  to  his  mind  was  the  danger  that,  by  means 
of  treaties  or  other  agreements,  Japan  might  give  for- 
eigners a  foothold  on  her  territory,  such  as  China  had 
given. 

On  his  way  to  a  meeting  of  the  Institut  de  Droit  In- 
ternational at  Geneva,  Mr.  Kentaro  Kaneko  sought  to 
renew  the  intercourse  he  had  enjoyed  with  Spencer  two 
years  before. 

To  KENTARO  KANEKO. 

PEWSEY,  21  August,  1892. 

Probably  you  remember  I  told  you  that  when  Mr. 
Mori,  the  then  Japanese  Ambassador,  submitted  to  me 
his  draft  for  a  Japanese  Constitution,  I  gave  him  very 
conservative  advice,  contending  that  it  was  impossible 
that  the  Japanese,  hitherto  accustomed  to  despotic  rule, 
11 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

should,   all  at   once,   become  capable   of  constitutional 
government. 

My  advice  was  not,  I  fear,  duly  regarded,  and  so  far 
as  I  gather  from  the  recent  reports  of  Japanese  affairs, 
you  are  experiencing  the  evils  arising  from  too  large 
an  instalment  of  freedom. 

23  August. — Since  writing  to  you  on  Sunday  it  has 
recurred  to  me,  in  pursuance  of  my  remarks  about  Japa- 
nese affairs  and  the  miscarriage  of  your  constitution,  to 
make  a  suggestion  giving  in  a  definite  form  such  a  con- 
servative policy  as  I  thought  should  be  taken. 

My  advice  to  Mr.  Mori  was  that  the  proposed  new 
institutions  should  be  as  much  as  possible  grafted  upon 
the  existing  institutions,  so  as  to  prevent  breaking  the 
continuity — that  there  should  not  be  a  replacing  of  old 
forms  by  new,  but  a  modification  of  old  forms  to  a 
gradually  increasing  extent.  I  did  not  at  the  time  go 
into  the  matter  so  far  as  to  suggest  in  what  way  this 
might  be  done,  but  it  now  occurs  to  me  that  there  is  a 
very  feasible  way  of  doing  it. 

You  have,  I  believe,  in  Japan  still  surviving  the 
ancient  system  of  family  organization.  .  .  .  Under  this 
family  or  patriarchal  organization  it  habitually  happens 
that  there  exists  in  each  group  an  eldest  male  ascendant, 
who  is  the  ruling  authority  of  the  group — an  authority 
who  has  in  many  cases  a  despotic  power  to  which  all  de- 
scendants of  the  first  and  second  generations  unhesi- 
tatingly submit.  This  organization  should  be  made  use 
of  in  your  new  political  form.  These  patriarchs  or  heads 
of  groups  should  be  made  the  sole  electors  of  members 
of  your  representative  body.  .  .  .  Several  beneficial  re- 
sults would  arise.  In  the  first  place,  your  electorate 
would  be  greatly  reduced  in  number,  and  therefore  more 
manageable.  In  the  second  place,  the  various  extreme 
opinions  held  by  the  members  of  each  group  would  be  to 
a  considerable  extent  mutually  cancelled  and  made  more 
moderate  by  having  to  find  expression  through  the  pa- 
12 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

triarch  who  would  in  a  certain  measure  be  influenced 
by  the  opinions  of  his  descendants.  And  then,  in  the 
third  place,  and  chiefly,  these  patriarchal  electors,  being 
all  aged  men,  would  have  more  conservative  leanings 
than  the  younger  members  of  their  groups — would  not 
be  in  favour  of  rash  changes. 

In  pursuance  of  the  principle  for  which  I  have  con- 
tended, that  free  institutions,  to  which  the  Japanese  have 
been  utterly  unaccustomed,  are  certain  not  to  work  well, 
and  that  there  must  be  a  gradual  adaptation  to  them,  I 
suggest  that,  for  three  or  four  generations,  the  assembly 
formed  of  representative  men  elected  by  these  patri- 
archal heads  of  groups  should  be  limited  in  their  func- 
tions to  making  statements  of  grievances,  or  of  evils 
or  what  they  think  evils,  which  they  wish  to  have 
remedied — not  having  any  authority  either  to  take  meas- 
ures for  remedying  them,  or  authority  even  for  suggest- 
ing measures,  but  having  the  function  simply  of  saying 
what  they  regard  as  grievances.  This  would  be  a  func- 
tion completely  on  the  lines  of  the  function  of  our  own 
representative  body  in  its  earliest  stages.  .  .  . 

After  three  or  four  generations  during  which  this 
representative  assembly  was  powerless  to  do  more  than 
state  what  they  thought  were  grievances,  there  might 
come  three  or  four  other  generations  in  which  they  should 
have  the  further  power  of  suggesting  remedies — not  the 
power  of  passing  remedial  laws,  such  as  is  possessed  by 
developed  representative  bodies,  but  the  power  of  con- 
sidering in  what  way  they  thought  the  evils  might  be 
met,  and  then  sending  up  their  suggestions  to  the  House 
of  Peers  and  the  Emperor. 

And  then,  after  this  had  been  for  generations  the  func- 
tion of  the  representative  body,  there  might  eventually 
be  given  to  it  a  full  power  of  legislation,  co-ordinate 
with  that  of  the  other  two  legislative  authorities.  Such 
an  organization  would  make  possible  the  long-continued 
discipline  which  is  needful  for  use  of  political  power, 
at  the  same  time  that  it  would  at  once  do  away  with  the 
13 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

possibilities  of  these  quarrels  from  which  you  are  now 
suffering. 

The  Japanese  Constitution,  Mr.  Kentaro  Kaneko  as- 
sured him,  had  been  drawn  upon  conservative  lines, 
owing  largely  to  advice  given  by  Spencer  and  others. 
While  seeking  permission  to  forward  Spencer's  two  let- 
ters to  Count  Ito,  Mr.  Kaneko  reminded  him  (24  Aug- 
ust) that  Japan  was  now  negotiating  with  the  Treaty 
Powers  of  Europe  and  America  to  revise  the  existing 
treaty.  By  the  revision  Japanese  statesmen  expected 
to  open  the  whole  Empire  to  foreigners  and  foreign 
capital,  and  there  was  much  difference  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  the  restrictions  to  be  put  on  foreigners  (1) 
holding  land,  (2)  working  mines,  and  (3)  engaging  in 
the  coasting  trade.  Mr.  Kaneko  then  goes  on  to  say: 

One  interesting  question — viz.,  inter-marriage  of  for- 
eigners with  Japanese — is  now  very  much  agitated 
among  our  scholars  and  politicians.  This  question  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  problems,  and  it  falls  within  the 
scope  of  social  philosophers;  therefore,  your  opinion 
will  decide  the  case.  Can  I  be  permitted  to  have  the 
privilege  to  know  your  opinion  on  this  question? 

To  KENTARO  KANEKO. 

26  August,  1892. 

Your  proposal  to  send  translations  of  my  two  letters 
to  Count  Ito,  the  newly-appointed  Prime  Minister,  is 
quite  satisfactory.  I  very  willingly  give  my  assent. 

Respecting  the  further  questions  you  ask,  let  me,  in 
the  first  place,  answer  generally  that  the  Japanese  policy 
should,  I  think,  be  that  of  keeping  Americans  and  Euro- 
peans as  much  as  possible  at  arm's  length.  In  presence 
of  the  more  powerful  races  your  position  is  one  of 
14 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

chronic  danger,  and  you  should  take  every  precaution 
to  give  as  little  foothold  as  possible  to  foreigners. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  only  forms  of  intercourse 
which  you  may  with  advantage  permit  are  those  which 
are  indispensable  for  the  exchange  of  commodities  and 
exchange  of  ideas — importation  and  exportation  of  phys- 
ical and  mental  products.  No  further  privileges  should 
be  allowed  to  people  of  other  races,  and  especially  to 
people  of  the  more  powerful  races,  than  is  absolutely 
needful  for  the  achievement  of  these  ends.  Apparently 
you  are  proposing  by  revision  of  the  treaty  powers  with 
Europe  and  America  ' '  to  open  the  whole  Empire  to  for- 
eigners and  foreign  capital."  I  regard  this  as  a  fatal 
policy.  If  you  wish  to  see  what  is  likely  to  happen, 
study  the  history  of  India.  Once  let  one  of  the  more 
powerful  races  gain  a  point  d'appui  and  there  will  in- 
evitably in  course  of  time  grow  up  an  aggressive  policy 
which  will  lead  to  collisions  with  the  Japanese;  these 
collisions  will  be  represented  as  attacks  by  the  Japanese 
which  must  be  avenged;  forces  will  be  sent  from  Amer- 
ica or  Europe,  as  the  case  may  be ;  a  portion  of  territory 
will  be  seized  and  required  to  be  made  over  as  a  foreign 
settlement;  and  from  this  there  will  grow  eventually 
subjugation  of  the  entire  Japanese  Empire.  I  believe 
that  you  will  have  great  difficulty  in  avoiding  this  fate 
in  any  case,  but  you  will  make  the  process  easy  if  you 
allow  any  privileges  to  foreigners  beyond  those  which  I 
have  indicated. 

In  pursuance  of  the  advice  thus  generally  indicated, 
I  should  say,  in  answer  to  your  first  question,  that  there 
should  be,  not  only  a  prohibition  to  foreign  persons  to 
hold  property  in  land,  but  also  a  refusal  to  give  them 
leases,  and  a  permission  only  to  reside  as  annual  tenants. 

To  the  second  question  I  should  say  decidedly,  pro- 
hibit to  foreigners  the  working  of  the  mines  owned  or 
worked  by  Government.  Here  there  would  be  obviously 
liable  to  arise  grounds  of  difference  between  the  Euro- 
peans or  Americans  who  worked  them  and  the  Govern- 
15 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

ment,  and  these  grounds  of  difference  would  immediately 
become  grounds  of  quarrel,  and  would  be  followed  by 
invocations  to  the  English  or  American  Governments 
or  other  Powers  to  send  forces  to  insist  on  whatever  the 
European  workers  claimed,  for  always  the  habit  here 
and  elsewhere  among  the  civilised  peoples  is  to  believe 
what  their  agents  or  settlers  abroad  represent  to  them. 

In  the  third  place,  in  pursuance  of  the  policy  I  have 
indicated,  you  ought  also  to  keep  the  coasting  trade  in 
your  own  hands  and  forbid  foreigners  to  engage  in  it. 
This  coasting  trade  is  clearly  not  included  in  the  re- 
quirement I  have  indicated  as  the  sole  one  to  be  recog- 
nised— a  requirement  to  facilitate  exportation  and  im- 
portation of  commodities.  The  distribution  of  commod- 
ities brought  to  Japan  from  other  places  may  be  properly 
left  to  the  Japanese  themselves,  and  should  be  denied  to 
foreigners,  for  the  reason  that  again  the  various  trans- 
actions involved  would  become  so  many  doors  open  to 
quarrels  and  resulting  aggressions. 

To  your  remaining  question,  respecting  the  inter-mar- 
riage of  foreigners  and  Japanese,  which  you  say  is  "  now 
very  much  agitated  among  our  scholars  and  politicians, ' ' 
and  which  you  say  is  "  one  of  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lems," my  reply  is  that,  as  rationally  answered,  there  is 
no  difficulty  at  all.  It  should  be  positively  forbidden. 
It  is  not  at  root  a  question  of  social  philosophy.  It  is  at 
root  a  question  of  biology.  There  is  abundant  proof, 
alike  furnished  by  the  inter-marriages  of  human  races 
and  by  the  inter-breeding  of  animals,  that  when  the 
varieties  mingled  diverge  beyond  a  certain  slight  degree 
the  result  is  invariably  a  bad  one  in  the  long  run.  I 
have  myself  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  at  the  evidence 
bearing  on  this  matter  for  many  years  past,  and  my 
conviction  is  based  upon  numerous  facts  derived  from 
numerous  sources.  This  conviction  I  have  within  the 
last  half  hour  verified,  for  I  happen  to  be  staying  in  the 
country  with  a  gentleman  who  is  well  known  as  an 
authority  on  horses,  cattle  and  sheep,  and  knows  much 
16 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

respecting  their  inter-breeding ;  and  he  has  just,  on  in- 
quiry, fully  confirmed  my  belief  that  when,  say  of  dif- 
ferent varieties  of  sheep,  there  is  an  inter-breeding  of 
those  which  are  widely  unlike,  the  result,  especially  in 
the  second  generation,  is  a  bad  one — there  arises  an  in- 
calculable mixture  of  traits,  and  what  may  be  called  a 
chaotic  constitution.  And  the  same  thing  happens 
among  human  beings — the  Eurasians  in  India,  and  the 
half-breeds  in  America,  show  this.  The  physiological 
basis  of  this  experience  appears  to  be  that  any  one  vari- 
ety of  creature  in  course  of  many  generations  acquires 
a  certain  constitutional  adaptation  to  its  particular  form 
of  life,  and  every  other  variety  similarly  acquires  its  own 
special  adaptation.  The  consequence  is  that,  if  you  mix 
the  constitutions  of  two  widely  divergent  varieties  which 
have  severally  become  adapted  to  widely  divergent 
modes  of  life,  you  get  a  constitution  which  is  adapted  to 
the  mode  of  life  of  neither — a  constitution  which  will  not 
work  properly,  because  it  is  not  fitted  for  any  set  of 
conditions  whatever.  By  all  means,  therefore,  peremp- 
torily interdict  marriages  of  Japanese  with  foreigners. 

I  have  for  the  reasons  indicated  entirely  approved  of 
the  regulations  which  have  been  established  in  America 
for  restraining  the  Chinese  immigration,  and  had  I  the 
power  would  restrict  them  to  the  smallest  possible 
amount,  my  reasons  for  this  decision  being  that  one  of 
two  things  must  happen.  If  the  Chinese  are  allowed  to 
settle  extensively  in  America,  they  must  either,  if  they 
remain  unmixed,  form  a  subject  race  in  the  position,  if 
not  of  slaves,  yet  of  a  class  approaching  to  slaves ;  or  if 
they  mix  they  must  form  a  bad  hybrid.  In  either  case, 
supposing  the  immigration  to  be  large,  immense  social 
mischief  must  arise,  and  eventually  social  disorganiza- 
tion. The  same  thing  will  happen  if  there  should  be  any 
considerable  mixture  of  the  European  or  American  races 
with  the  Japanese. 

You  see,  therefore,  that  my  advice  is  strongly  con- 
servative in  all  directions,  and  I  end  by  saying  as  I  be- 
17 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

gan — keep  other  races  at  arm's  length  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. 

I  give  this  advice  in  confidence.  I  wish  that  it  should 
not  transpire  publicly,  at  any  rate  during  my  life,  for  I 
do  not  desire  to  rouse  the  animosity  of  my  fellow-coun- 
trymen. 

P.S. — Of  course,  when  I  say  I  wish  this  advice  to  be 
in  confidence,  I  do  not  interdict  the  communication  of  it 
to  Count  Ito,  but  rather  wish  that  he  should  have  the 
opportunity  of  taking  it  into  consideration. 

Though  he  did  not  wish  this  letter  made  public  during 
his  life,  Spencer  has  endorsed  on  the  copies  of  the  corre- 
respondence — "  My  letters  of  advice  contained  in  this 
batch  should  be  read  and  published."  Shortly  after  his 
death  the  letter  of  August  26  was  sent  from  Tokio  for 
publication  in  the  Times  (18  January,  1904),  which 
wrote  of  it  as  giving  ' '  advice  as  narrow,  as  much  imbued 
with  antipathy  to  real  progress,  as  ever  came  from  a 
self-sufficient,  short-sighted  Mandarin,  bred  in  contempt 
and  hatred  of  barbarians." 

The  correspondence  makes  little  mention  of  the  Ethics, 
the  concluding  chapters  of  which  were  being  written  be- 
fore he  left  town  in  December. 

To  FREDERIC  HARRISON. 

4  December,  1892. 

In  your  reply  to  Huxley  1  I  have  just  come  upon  a 
passage  (p.  716)  which  startled  me  by  showing  a  degree 
of  agreement  between  your  view  and  my  own  concerning 
certain  ultimate  questions  much  greater  than  I  had  sup- 
posed. .  .  . 

I  am  in  the  middle  of  the  last  chapter  of  the  Ethics. 
...  I  have  been  so  ill  that  during  the  last  fortnight  I 

1  Fortnightly  Review,  December. 
18 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

have  been  obliged  to  suspend  work  altogether,  but  when 
lying  in  bed  have  from  time  to  time  made  memoranda 
of  thoughts  to  be  expressed  in  this  closing  chapter  of  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy :  the  most  significant  of  these  sen- 
tences .  .  .  belonging  to  the  last  section  of  this  last 
chapter.  Of  the  three  relevant  sentences  here  are 
copies : — 

"  A  transfigured  sentiment  of  parenthood  which  re- 
gards with  solicitude  not  child  and  grandchild  only,  but 
the  generations  to  come  hereafter — fathers  of  the  future 
creating  and  providing  for  their  remote  children." 

"  May  we  not  say  that  the  highest  ambition  of  the 
truly  beneficent  will  be  to  have  a  share — even  but  an 
infinitesimal  share — in  the  making  of  man." 

"  While  contemplating  from  the  heights  of  thought 
that  far-off  life  of  humanity  never  to  be  enjoyed  by 
them,  but  only  by  a  remote  posterity,  they  will  feel  a 
calm  pleasure  in  the  consciousness  of  having  aided  by 
conduct  or  by  teaching  the  advance  towards  it." 

I  send  you  these  copies  of  memoranda,  partly  because, 
if  I  do  not,  you  will,  when  the  book  is  published,  suppose 
that  I  have  been  plagiarizing  on  you ;  and  partly  because 
they  show,  as  I  say,  a  degree  of  agreement  greater  than 
I  supposed.  The  chief  difference  between  us  is  evi- 
dently a  matter  of  names.  ...  I  regard  the  ideas  and 
sentiments  contained  as  belonging  to  ethics.  You  regard 
them  as  belonging  to  religion.  .  .  .  You  do  not  appar- 
ently recognise  the  fact  that  ethics  and  religion,  origi- 
nally one,  have  been  differentiating  from  the  beginning, 
and  have  become  in  modern  times  quite  distinct ;  so  that 
ethics  is  being  secularised  (as  we  see  even  in  the 
teachers  of  Christianity,  who  more  and  more  are  un- 
awares separating  morality  from  religion),  and  you  do 
not  infer  that  they  [ethics  and  religion]  will  never  again 
be  reunited.  Nor  do  you  admit  that  as  religion  origi- 
nally implied  belief  in  a  supposed  anthropomorphic 
power,  it  remains,  when  the  anthropomorphic  character 
gradually  disappears,  as  a  belief  in  a  Power  as  unknown 
19 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

and  transcending  knowledge.  As  I  say,  this  difference 
is  after  all  very  much  a  difference  of  names,  save,  indeed, 
that  while  I  consider  that  there  will  be  a  persistent 
recognition  of  this  unknown  Power,  you  apparently  do 
not  think  the  recognition  of  it  will  continue. 

Just  before  Christmas  he  went  to  St.  Leonards,  and 
never  afterwards  spent  a  winter  in  London. 

To  SIR  WILLIAM  H.  FLOWER. 

ST.  LEONARDS,  17  January,  1893. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  join  the  Committee  of  the 
Owen  memorial.  Two  obstacles  stand  in  the  way. 

For  a  long  time  past  I  have  held  that  the  getting  up 
of  testimonials  and  memorials  is  becoming  an  abuse  and 
should  be  resisted.  .  .  . 

The  second  obstacle  is  that,  large  though  Owen's 
claims  may  be  in  the  way  of  achievement,  he  lacked  a 
trait  which  I  think  essential — he  was  not  sincere.  He 
did  not  say  out  candidly  what  he  believed,  but  tried  to 
please  both  parties,  the  scientific  world  and  the  religious 
world.  This  is  not  my  impression  only,  but  that,  I  be- 
lieve, of  many. 

After  some  reflection  he  changed  his  mind  and  wrote 
requesting  his  name  to  be  added  to  the  Committee. 

As  he  grew  older  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  trend  of 
political  and  social  affairs  at  home  and  abroad  became 
more  acute. 

To  JOHN  TYNDALL. 

30  January,  1893. 

You  are  doubtless  looking  forward  with  eagerness  and 

anxiety  to  the  opening  of  Parliament  and  the  disclosure 

of  this  great  scheme  of  national  dissolution.    What  a 

state  of  the  world  we  are  living  in,  with  its  socialism  and 

20 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

anarchisms,  and  all  kinds  of  wild  ideas  and  destructive 
actions !  The  prophesies  I  have  been  making  from  time 
to  time  ever  since  1860,  as  to  the  results  of  giving  to  men 
political  power  without  imposing  on  them  equivalent 
political  burdens,  are  becoming  true  faster  than  I  had 
anticipated. 

3  April. — I,  in  common  with  you,  look  at  the  state  of 
the  world  in  dismay;  but  I  have  for  a  long  time  past 
seen  the  inevitableness  of  the  tremendous  disasters  that 
are  coming.  .  .  .  But  you  and  I  will  not  live  to  see  it. 
Happily — I  think  I  may  say  happily — we  shall  be  out 
of  it  before  the  crash  comes. 

To  H.  R.  Fox  BOURNE. 

2  March,  1893. 

Has  anything  been  done  by  the  Aborigines  Protection 
Society  in  respect  of  this  division  of  Queensland? 
Surely  some  very  strong  protest  should  be  made.  It 
has  been  all  along  conspicuous  enough  that  the  proposals 
for  division  arise  among  sugar  planters,  who  are  anxious 
to  be  able  to  import  Kanakas  without  any  restraint,  and 
to  reduce  them,  as  they  inevitably  do,  to  a  state  of  slav- 
ery. As  to  any  safeguards  due  to  contract  and  appeal 
to  magistrates  for  protection,  the  thing  is  simply  absurd. 

It  seems  to  me  that  while  we  are  pretending  to  be 
anxious  to  abolish  slavery  in  Africa,  we  are  taking 
measures  to  establish  slavery  under  another  name  in 
Australia. 

In  his  letter  to  Professor  Tyndall  of  April  3,  quoted 
above,  mention  is  made  of  "  a  domestic  crisis,  due  to 
the  allegation  made  by  the  ladies  of  my  household,  that 
their  means  would  not  enable  them  to  carry  out  our 
agreement  any  longer,  easy  as  it  is  for  them.  This  en- 
tailed on  me  dreadful  worry,  and  an  amount  of  both 
intellectual  and  emotional  perturbation  that  knocked  me 
21 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

down  utterly,  so  that  a  few  days  ago  I  was  worse  than  I 
had  been  these  six  years."  This  was  a  grievous  upset- 
ting of  the  arrangement  entered  into  so  hopefully  in 
1889.  From  the  beginning  he  had  made  no  secret  that 
his  reason  for  setting  up  a  house  of  his  own  was  his 
craving  for  the  social  comforts  and  pleasures  of  domestic 
life.  It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  understand  how  it  could 
have  been  assumed  by  these  ladies  that  in  his  own  house 
he  would  live  almost  entirely  by  himself,  leaving  the 
other  members  of  the  household  to  go  their  own  way. 
For  such  a  solitary  life  there  was  absolutely  no  reason 
why  he  should  have  exchanged  the  conveniences  and 
comforts  of  Queen's  Gardens,  saddling  himself  also  with 
greatly  increased  expenditure.  When  the  arrangement 
was  first  proposed  some  of  his  friends  felt  that  unless 
carried  out  with  more  than  ordinary  prudence  on  both 
sides  it  would  not  work  smoothly,  there  being  so  many 
points  on  which  misunderstanding  might  arise.  Instead 
of  the  household  partaking  of  the  unity  of  one  family, 
there  were  really  two  family  interests,  and  these  two 
interests  could  not  be  counted  upon  to  pull  always  in  the 
same  direction.  Union  of  interests  in  certain  things  and 
separation  of  interests  in  others  could  only  be  carried  on 
with  the  utmost  forbearance  on  both  sides  and  the  most 
generous  interpretation  of  the  terms  of  the  agreement. 
In  both  these  respects  it  speaks  well  for  those  concerned 
that  it  worked  so  harmoniously  as  it  did  for  some  years. 
When  differences  at  length  arose  his  principal  concern 
was  to  get  at  the  facts,  so  that  the  ladies  might  be  in  a 
position  to  satisfy  themselves  as  to  whether  it  was  or 
was  not  in  their  interests  to  continue  the  arrangement. 
While  doing  all  he  could  to  meet  their  views  of  economy 
22 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

and  his  own  views  of  equity,  and  thus  to  allow  of  the 
arrangement  being  continued,  he  did  not  look  upon  its 
termination  as  a  calamity  that  must  be  averted  at  almost 
any  cost.  There  was  a  point  beyond  which  he  would 
not  go  in  the  matter  of  concession.  "  You  and  your 
sisters  have  to  accept  or  reject  my  proposals — generous 
proposals,  I  think  them.  ...  I  do  not  wish  any  further 
letters  or  proposals  or  correspondence,  and  would  will- 
ingly have  given  £500  rather  than  suffer  the  illness 
which  the  business  has  brought  upon  me  .  .  .  and  will 
have  no  more  trouble  about  the  matter.  You  have  sim- 
ply to  say  '  yes  '  or  '  no  '  to  the  agreement  I  have  pro- 
posed." After  some  hesitation  his  terms  were  accepted 
and  a  new  agreement  drawn  up. 

The  settlement  of  this  disagreeable  matter  enabled  him 
to  leave  town  with  an  easier  mind. 

To  SIB  JOHN  LUBBOCK. 

PEWSEY,  18  May,  1893. 

Thanks  for  your  invitation,  but  you  see  by  the  address 
that  I  am  out  of  reach.  An  old  friend  of  mine  went 
over  to  Brussels  to  make  a  morning  call  and  came 
straight  back,  but  you  would  hardly  expect  me  to  emu- 
late him.  ...  I  fear  that  now  the  X.  is  dead  there  is 
but  little  chance  of  our  meeting,  save  by  accident  at 
the  Club.  I  wish  it  were  otherwise. 

To  JOHN  HAWKE. 

PEWSEY,  29  May,  1893. 

Having,  as  you  say,  expressed  myself  strongly  on  the 
subject  of  gambling  and  betting,  I  feel  bound  to  give 
some  little  aid  to  your  society,  which  aims,  if  not  to  sup- 
press it  (which  is  hopeless),  yet  to  diminish  it,  and 
herewith  I  enclose  cheque.  .  .  . 
23 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

As  to  giving  my  name  as  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents, 
I  should  have  no  objection  were  it  not  that  the  associa- 
tion of  my  name  with  a  body  so  largely  clerical  in  its 
character  would  lead  to  adverse  criticisms.  It  is  not 
that  I  in  the  least  object  to  such  an  association,  and  it 
may  be  that  the  clergymen  named  are  sufficiently  liberal 
to  work  with  one  whose  religious  opinions  are  so  ob- 
viously at  variance  with  their  own.  But  experience  in 
another  case  has  led  me  to  see  that  I  shall  be  liable  to 
adverse  interpretation  of  my  motives.  Change  in  my 
opinions  concerning  land-tenure  has  been  ascribed  to  a 
desire  to  ingratiate  myself  with  the  land-owning  class, 
and  I  doubt  not  that  if  I  were,  as  you  suggest,  to  accept 
the  position  of  vice-president  along  with  so  many  mem- 
bers of  the  Church,  it  would  be  ascribed  to  a  desire  to 
ingratiate  myself  with  the  clergy. 


Neither  imperialism  nor  athleticism  found  favour  with 
him;  one  reason  for  his  objection  to  the  latter  being  the 
vice  of  betting  associated  with  it.  An  invitation  to  join 
the  general  committee  being  formed  to  carry  out  the 
Pan-Britannic  Idea,  expounded  in  Greater  Britain,  was 
declined. 

To  J.  ASTLEY  COOPER. 

PEWSEY,  20  June,  1893. 

I  fear  I  cannot  yield  to  your  suggestion,  and  for  the 
reason  that  I  entertain  grave  doubts  respecting  the  aims 
of  the  organization  to  which  Greater  Britain  points. 

A  federation  of  Great  Britain  with  her  colonies  would 
in  my  opinion  have  the  effect  of  encouraging  aggressive 
action  on  the  part  of  the  colonies,  with  a  still  more  ac- 
tive appropriation  of  territories  than  is  at  present  going 
on,  and  there  would  be  continued  demands  upon  the 
mother-country  for  military  and  financial  aid. 
24 


ALTRUISM  A  FACTOR  IN  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION 

28  June. — Though  your  explanation  serves  to  remove 
the  objection  I  made,  it  does  not  remove  another  objec- 
tion which  I  did  not  name. 

I  have  long  held  that  athleticism  has  become  an  abuse, 
and  occupies  far  too  much  space  in  life  and  in  public 
attention ;  and  I  should  be  very  much  averse  to  any 
arrangement  like  that  you  propose  which  would  tend  to 
render  it  more  prominent  than  it  is  already. 

When  I  tell  you  that  in  the  space  of  nearly  50  years 
spent  in  London  I  have  never  once  been  to  see  the  Uni- 
versity Boat  Race,  and  have  never  witnessed  a  cricket 
match  at  Lord's,  and  that  for  many  years  past  I  have 
intentionally  refrained  from  doing  so,  you  will  see  that 
my  views  on  the  matter  are  such  as  to  negative  the  co- 
operation you  suggest. 


25 


CHAPTER   XXII 
LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 
(November,  1889— October,  1895) 

(i.) 

SOON  after  taking  up  residence  in  Avenue  Road  in  the 
autumn  of  1889  he  was  plunged  into  a  controversy, 
which  not  only  interrupted  his  work  and  embittered  his 
life  for  several  months,  but  broke  up  for  a  time  an  in- 
timate and  valued  friendship  of  nearly  forty  years' 
standing.  This  most  unfortunate  event  had  its  origin 
in  a  meeting  Mr.  John  Morley  had  at  Newcastle  with 
his  constituents,  one  of  whom  urged  the  nationalisation 
of  the  land,  Spencer  being  quoted  in  favour  of  the  re- 
sumption of  ownership  by  the  community  (Times,  No- 
vember 5).  In  a  letter  to  the  Times  (November  7) 
Spencer  pointed  out  that  the  book  referred  to  was  pub- 
lished forty  years  ago,  and  that,  while  still  adhering  to 
the  general  principles,  he  now  dissented  from  some  of 
the  deductions.  The  land  question  had  been  discussed 
in  Social  Statics  in  the  belief  that  it  was  not  likely  to 
come  to  the  front  for  many  generations ;  but  it  had  been 
pointed  out  that  when  it  did  come  up  "  the  business  of 
compensation  of  landowners  would  be  a  complicated 
one."  "  Investigations  made  during  recent  years  into 
the  various  forms  of  social  organization,  have  in  part 
confirmed  and  in  part  changed  the  views  published  in 
26 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

1850."  "  I  have  no  positive  opinion  as  to  what  may 
hereafter  take  place.  The  reason  for  this  state  of  hesi- 
tancy is  that  I  cannot  see  my  way  towards  reconciliation 
of  the  ethical  requirements  with  the  politico-economical 
requirements."  Nothing  was  said  by  Spencer  in  this 
letter  about  the  opinion  attributed  to  him  at  Newcastle 
that  "  to  right  one  wrong  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to 
do  another."  He  now  (Times,  November  11)  wrote  to 
say  that  as  he  could  not  remember  everything  he  had 
written  during  the  last  forty  years,  it  would  be  unsafe 
to  assert  positively  that  he  had  nowhere  expressed  such 
an  opinion.  "  But  my  belief  is  that  I  have  not  said  this 
in  any  connection,  and  I  certainly  have  not  said  it  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  landownership."  The 
only  change  of  view  was  "  that  whereas  in  1850  I  sup- 
posed that  resumption  of  landownership  by  the  commu- 
nity would  be  economically  advantageous,  I  now  hold 
that,  if  established  with  due  regard  to  existing  claims,  as 
I  have  always  contended  it  should  be,  it  would  be  dis- 
advantageous. ' ' 

Professor  Huxley  now  entered  the  lists,  writing 
(Times,  November  12)  "in  the  name  of  that  not  incon- 
siderable number  of  persons  to  whom  absolute  ethics  and 
a  priori  politics  are  alike  stumbling-blocks."  "  I  have 
long  been  of  opinion  that  the  great  political  evil  of  our 
time  is  the  attempt  to  sanction  popular  acts  of  injustice 
by  antiquarian  and  speculative  arguments.  My  friend, 
Mr.  Spencer,  is,  I  am  sure,  the  last  person  willingly  to 
abet  this  tendency."  Professing  himself  unable  to  see 
in  what  respect  his  friend  and  he  disagreed  on  the  land 
question,  Spencer,  in  his  reply,  took  up  the  comments 
made  by  Professor  Huxley  on  absolute  political  ethics. 
27 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

"  However  much  a  politician  may  pooh-pooh  social 
ideals,  he  cannot  take  steps  towards  bettering  the  social 
state  without  tacitly  entertaining  them.  .  .  .  The  com- 
plaint of  Professor  Huxley  that  absolute  political  ethics 
does  not  show  us  what  to  do  in  each  concrete  case  seems 
to  me  much  like  the  complaint  of  a  medical  practitioner 
who  should  speak  slightingly  of  physiological  generaliza- 
tions because  they  did  not  tell  him  the  right  dressing  for 
a  wound,  or  how  best  to  deal  with  varicose  veins  " 
(Times,  November  15). 

Having  intimated  that  the  above  letter  was  to  be  his 
last,  he  did  not  reply  to  the  rejoinder  from  Professor 
Huxley  (Times,  November  18),  in  which  reference  is 
made  to  Spencer's  "  remarkable  inability  to  see  that  we 
disagree  on  the  land  question,"  and  to  the  physiological 
argument  which  "  is  hardly  chosen  with  so  much  pru- 
dence as  might  have  been  expected."  "  Mr.  Spencer 
could  not  have  chosen  a  better  illustration  of  the  gulf 
fixed  between  his  way  of  thinking  and  mine.  Whenever 
physiology  (including  pathology),  pharmacy  and  hy- 
giene are  perfect  sciences,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
practice  of  medicine  will  be  deducible  from  the  first 
principles  of  these  sciences.  That  happy  day  has  not 
arrived  yet."  And  if  at  present  it  would  be  unsafe  for 
the  medical  practitioner  to  treat  bodily  diseases  by  de- 
duction what  is  to  be  said  of  the  publicist  who  "  seeks 
guidance  not  from  the  safe,  however  limited,  inductions 
based  on  careful  observation  and  experience,  but  puts  his 
faith  in  long  chains  of  deduction  from  abstract  ethical 
assumptions,  hardly  any  link  of  which  can  be  tested 
experimentally?  " 

28 


THOMAS  HENRY  HUXLEY  AND   HIS  GRANDSON. 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

On  being  reminded  by  Mr.  Frederick  Greenwood  that 
he  had  not  yet  repudiated  the  doctrine  that  "  to  right 
one  wrong  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  do  another," 
Spencer  wrote  (Times,  November  19)  :  "It  never  oc- 
curred to  me  that,  after  what  I  said,  this  was  needful. 
But  as  he  thinks  otherwise,  I  very  willingly  repudiate  it, 
both  for  the  past  and  the  present.  Even  did  I  wish  to 
continue  my  discussion  with  Professor  Huxley,  it  would 
be  ended  by  his  letter.  From  it  I  learn  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  physiology,  as  at  present  known,  are  of  no  use 
whatever  for  guidance  in  practice,  and  my  argument, 
therefore,  collapses."  A  week  later  (Times,  November 
27)  he  wrote  again:  "  I  cannot  allow  the  late  contro- 
versy to  pass  without  disclaiming  the  absurd  ideas 
ascribed  to  me.  .  .  .  The  suggestion  that  an  ideal  must 
be  kept  in  view,  so  that  our  movements  may  be  towards 
it  and  not  away  from  it,  has  been  regarded  as  a  proposal 
forthwith  to  realise  the  ideal." 

The  breach  thus  brought  about  was  a  matter  of  much 
concern  to  their  intimate  friends,  specially  so  to  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall,  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  Dr.  Hirst,  and  other 
members  of  the  X  Club.  It  came  as  a  surprise  to  Pro- 
fessor Huxley,  who  was  not  aware  of  having  said  any- 
thing sharper  than  he  had  said  before,  both  privately 
and  publicly. 

FROM  JOHN  TYNDALL. 

25  November,  1889. 

You  may  well  believe  that  this  newspaper  controversy 
has  been  a  source  of  mourning  to  my  wife  and  me. 
Many  a  time  since  it  began  have  I  wished  to  be  at  your 
side  or,  better  still,  to  have  you  and  Huxley  face  to  face. 
With  a  little  tact  and  moderation  the  difference  between 
29 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

you — if  a  difference  exist  at  all — might  have  been  easily 
arranged.  When  I  read  the  concluding  part  of  your 
first  long  letter,  where  you  speak  of  state  ownership  as 
resulting  in  disaster,  I  exclaimed,  "  Bravo  Spencer!  "; 
but  on  reading  the  whole  letter,  it  seemed  to  me  that  you 
were  too  anxious  to  prove  your  consistency.  Relying 
upon  merits  which  the  whole  world  acknowledges,  you 
ought,  I  think,  to  be  able  to  say,  "  Damn  consistency!  " 
in  regard  to  these  scraps  and  fragments  of  your  views. 
.  .  .  From  a  public  point  of  view,  and  with  reference 
solely  to  the  questions  discussed,  I  thought  Huxley's 
letters  excellent.  From  another  point  of  view,  he  might, 
I  think,  have  kept  more  clearly  in  mind  that  he  was  deal- 
ing not  with  an  ordinary  antagonist,  but  with  a  friend 
who  had  such  just  and  undeniable  claims  upon  his  ad- 
miration and  affection.  ...  It  is  a  monstrous  pity  that 
you  and  he  should  appear  to  stand  before  the  public  as 
antagonists,  to  an  extent  far  beyond  what  the  facts 
would  justify.  You  deal  with  political  principles;  he 
deals  with  the  problems  of  the  hour — the  problems,  that 
is  to  say,  that  have  to  shape  the  course  of  the  practical 
statesman.  There  is  no  necessary  antagonism  here. 

The  breach  might  have  been  repaired  before  the  end 
of  the  year  had  Spencer  talked  the  matter  over  with  his 
friends,  instead  of  shutting  himself  up  and  seeing  no 
one.  The  friendly  offices  of  the  other  members  of  the  X 
Club  were  offered  for  the  adjustment  of  the  difference; 
but  instead  of  availing  himself  of  these,  he  wrote  a  letter 
withdrawing  from  the  Club — a  letter  which,  on  Sir 
Joseph  Hooker 's  advice,  was  kept  back.  Professor  Hux- 
ley was  quite  ready  to  meet  him  more  than  half-way: 
intimating  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  intended  for 
Spencer's  perusal,  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  intention 
of  holding  Spencer  up  to  ridicule;  that  nothing  aston- 
ished him  more  and  gave  him  greater  pain  than  Spencer 
30 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

taking  the  line  he  did ;  that  his  wish  was,  if  needs  be,  to 
take  all  the  wrong  on  his  own  shoulders  and  to  assure 
Spencer  that  there  had  been  no  malice;  and  that  if  he 
had  been  in  Spencer's  estimation  needlessly  sharp  in 
reply,  he  was  extremely  sorry  for  it.  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  olive  branch  thus  held  out  was  not  accepted.  In  ex- 
planation of  his  attitude  Spencer  wrote  to  Professor 
Tyndall  (9  December)  :— 

Doubtless  you  and  others  of  the  Club  [the  X]  do  not 
fully  understand  the  state  of  mind  produced  in  me, 
because  you  are  not  aware  that  almost  everything  said 
by  Huxley  [concerning  my  views]  was  a  misrepresenta- 
tion more  or  less  extreme,  and  in  some  cases  an  inex- 
cusable misrepresentation.  .  .  .  The  effect  on  me  has 
been  such  that  the  thoughts  and  irritations  have  been 
going  round  in  my  brain  day  and  night  as  in  a  mill, 
without  the  possibility  of  stopping  them. 

12  December. — I  cannot  let  things  remain  in  the  state 
in  which  the  controversy  in  the  Times  left  them ;  and  to 
put  them  in  some  measure  straight,  and  rectify  to  a 
small  extent  the  mischief  done,  I  am  preparing  a  short 
article  for  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

With  the  new  year  the  controversy  entered  upon  a 
new  phase. 

To  JOHN  TYNDALL. 

8  February,  1890. 

I  send  you  a  copy  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  [8  Febru- 
ary] in  which,  as  you  will  see,  I  have  had  to  defend 
myself  against  another  grave  misrepresentation. 

One  would  have  thought  that  after  having  done  me  so 
much  mischief  and  after  having  professed  his  regret, 
Huxley  would  at  least  have  been  careful  not  to  do  the 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

like  again  forthwith,  but  besides  a  perfectly  gratuitous 
sneer  unmistakably  directed  against  me  in  the  opening 
of  his  article  in  the  current  number  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  there  comes  this  mischievous  characterization 
diffused  among  the  quarter  of  a  million  readers  of  the 
Daily  Telegraph. 

In  the  Daily  Telegraph  of  23  January,  Mr.  Robert 
Buchanan  had  taken  up  "  the  criticism  of  the  socialistic 
theories  of  Rousseau  by  Professor  Huxley,  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century."  In  a  second  letter  (27th)  he  referred 
to  Spencer  as  one  of  those  who  "  are  socialists  only  in 
the  good  and  philosophical  sense,  and  who  are  not,  like 
mere  communists,  enemies  of  all  vested  interests  what- 
soever." In  a  third  communication  (3  February)  he 
criticised  letters  from  Professor  Huxley  of  the  29th  and 
31st  respectively.  In  the  former  of  these  Professor 
Huxley  had  animadverted  on  "  the  political  philosophy 
which  Mr.  Buchanan  idolises,  the  consistent  application 
of  which  reasoned  savagery  to  practice  would  have  left 
the  working  classes  to  fight  out  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  themselves,  and  bid  the  State  to  content  itself 
with  keeping  the  ring."  If  a  man  has  nothing  to  offer 
in  exchange  for  a  loaf,  "  it  is  not  I,  but  the  extreme  In- 
dividualists, who  will  say  that  he  may  starve.  If  the 
State  relieves  his  necessities,  it  is  not  I,  but  they,  who 
say  it  is  exceeding  its  powers;  if  private  charity  suc- 
cours the  poor  fellow,  it  is  not  I,  but  they,  who  reprove 
the  giver  for  interfering  with  the  survival  of  the  fittest. ' ' 
A  keen  controversialist  like  Professor  Huxley  could  not 
fail  to  fasten  on  the  sentence  in  which  Mr.  Buchanan 
classed  Spencer  with  socialists  in  the  good  and  philo- 
sophical sense.  "  I  had  fondly  supposed,  until  Mr.  Rob- 
32 


LATTER  DAY  CONTEOVERSIES 

ert  Buchanan  taught  me  better,  that  if  there  was  any 
charge  Mr.  Spencer  would  find  offensive,  it  would  be 
that  of  being  declared  to  be,  in  any  shape  or  way,  a 
socialist."  He  wondered  whether  Mr.  Buchanan  had 
read  The  Man  versus  the  State.  "  However  this  may 
be,  I  desire  to  make  clear  to  your  readers  what  the 
'  good  and  philosophical  sort  of  Socialism,'  which  finds 
expression  in  the  following  passages,  is  like. ' '  Professor 
Huxley  then  gave  quotations  from,  or  references  to,  pas- 
sages in  The  Man  versus  the  State,  pp.  19,  21,  22,  24,  27, 
34,  35.1 

To  ROBERT  BUCHANAN. 

5  February,  1890. 

Thank  you  for  your  last  letter  to  the  Daily  Telegraph, 
received  this  morning.  You  have  shown  yourself  ex- 
tremely chivalrous  in  taking  up  the  question  in  this  and 
in  the  preceding  letters. 

In  the  course  of  our  conversation  on  Sunday  I  did  not 
to  any  extent  enter  upon  the  questions  at  issue.  ...  It 
seems  to  me,  however,  that  candour  requires  me  to  say 
that  I  cannot  entirely  endorse  the  version  you  give  of  my 
political  views.  Unless  understood  in  a  sense  different 
from  that  which  will  ordinarily  be  given  to  them,  I 
hardly  see  how  the  words  "  higher  Socialism  "  are  ap- 
plicable. It  is  true  that  I  look  forward  to  a  future  in 
which  the  social  organization  will  differ  immensely  from 
any  we  now  know,  and  perhaps  from  any  we  now  con- 
ceive. .  .  .  But  I  hold  that  competition  and  contract 
must  persist  to  the  last  and  that  any  equalizations  which 
interfere  with  their  free  play  will  be  mischievous.  The 
fact  that  from  the  beginning  of  my  political  life  I  have 
been  an  opponent  of  national  education,  and  continue  to 

1  The  corresponding  pages  in  the  library  edition  are  297,  300, 
300-1,  303,  306,  315,  316. 

33 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

be  one,  will  show  you  that  I  cannot  coincide  in  your  view 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  society  to  prepare  its  individual 
members  for  the  battle  of  life.  I  hold  it  to  be  exclu- 
sively the  duty  of  parents.  .  .  . 

Sanguine  of  human  progress  as  I  used  to  be  in  earlier 
days,  I  am  now  more  and  more  persuaded  that  it  cannot 
take  place  faster  than  human  nature  is  itself  modified; 
and  the  modification  is  a  slow  process,  to  be  reached  only 
through  many,  many  generations.  When  I  see  the  be- 
haviour of  these  union  men  in  the  strikes  we  have  had 
and  are  having;  when  I  see  their  unscrupulous  tyranny 
and  utter  want  of  any  true  conception  of  liberty,  it 
seems  to  me  unquestionable  that  any  new  regime  con- 
stituted in  their  interests  would  soon  lapse  into  a  des- 
potic organization  of  a  merciless  type. 


Borrowing  as  a  heading  for  a  letter  to  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph (8  February)  Professor  Huxley's  phrase  "  Rea- 
soned Savagery, ' '  Spencer  pointed  out  that  ' '  for  nearly 
fifty  years  I  have  contended  that  the  pains  attendant  on 
the  struggle  for  existence  may  fitly  be  qualified  by  the 
aid  which  private  sympathy  prompts."  "  Everyone 
will  be  able  to  judge  whether  this  opinion  is  rightly 
characterised  by  the  phrase  '  Reasoned  Savagery.'  ' 

To  realise  the  bitterness  of  Spencer's  feelings  it  is 
necessary  to  be  reminded  of  the  sense  of  injustice  that 
rankled  in  his  breast  on  reflecting  that,  notwithstanding 
the  precept  and  example  of  a  lifetime  in  denouncing 
every  form  of  oppression .  and  injustice,  he  should  be 
charged  with  upholding  brutal  individualism  and  his 
views  should  be  branded  as  "  reasoned  savagery."  One 
must  also  remember  that  the  ill-health  and  depression, 
which  in  recent  years  had  kept  him  away  from  London 
and  more  or  less  in  retirement,  had  induced  a  state  of 
34 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

abnormal  sensitiveness  to  criticism.  Moreover,  clinging 
to  friendship  so  tenaciously  as  he  did  and  entertaining 
such  a  high  ideal  of  its  obligations,  he  felt  with  special 
keenness  an  act  which,  rightly  or  wrongly,  he  regarded 
as  unfriendly.  Taking  into  account  all  the  circum- 
stances one  can  understand  the  difficulty  he  had  in  re- 
sponding to  the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  both  to  repair 
the  breach.  These  efforts  were  after  a  time  given  up, 
and  Professor  Huxley's  name,  hitherto  so  frequently 
met  with,  almost  disappears  from  the  correspondence 
for  some  years.  It  was  not  till  towards  the  close  of  1893 
that  cordial  relations  were  re-established. 

And  yet  in  the  spring  of  that  year  the  prospect  of  a 
resumption  of  friendly  relations  was  by  no  means  bright. 
Though  alive  to  "  the  dangers  of  open  collision  with 
orthodoxy  on  the  one  hand  and  Spencer  on  the  other," 
Professor  Huxley  introduced  into  his  Romanes  lecture 
passages  which  Spencer  understood  to  be  directed 
against  him. 

To  JAMES  A.  SKILTON. 

PEWSEY,  29  June,  1893. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  think  of  taking  up  Hux- 
ley's "  Evolution  and  Ethics."  .  .  .  Practically  his 
view  is  a  surrender  of  the  general  doctrine  of  evolution 
in  so  far  as  its  higher  applications  are  concerned,  and  is 
pervaded  by  the  ridiculous  assumption  that,  in  its  appli- 
cation to  the  organic  world,  it  is  limited  to  the  struggle 
for  existence  among  individuals  under  its  ferocious  as- 
pects, and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  development  of 
social  organization,  or  the  modifications  of  the  human 
mind  that  take  place  in  the  course  of  that  organization. 
.  .  .  The  position  he  takes,  that  we  have  to  struggle 
against  or  correct  the  cosmic  process,  involves  the  as- 
35 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

sumption  that  there  exists  something  in  us  which  is  not 
a  product  of  the  cosmic  process,  and  is  practically  a 
going  back  to  the  old  theological  notions,  which  put  Man 
and  Nature  in  antithesis.  Any  rational,  comprehensive 
view  of  evolution  involves  that,  in  the  course  of  social 
evolution,  the  human  mind  is  disciplined  into  that  form 
which  itself  puts  a  check  upon  that  part  of  the  cosmic 
process  which  consists  in  the  unqualified  struggle  for 
existence.1 

Spencer  had  made  up  his  mind  not  to  take  the  matter 
up  himself,  but  his  resolution  gave  way  on  reading  a 
review  of  the  lecture  in  the  Athenceum  for  22  July. 
The  result  was  a  letter  on  "  Evolutionary  Ethics  "  in 
that  Journal  for  5  August.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
paper  he  enumerated  eight  fundamental  points  of  agree- 
ment between  himself  and  Professor  Huxley.  "  Obvi- 
ously, then,  it  is  impossible  that  Professor  Huxley  can 
have  meant  to  place  the  ethical  views  he  holds  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  ethical  views  I  hold;  and  it  is  the  more 
obviously  impossible  because,  for  a  fortnight  before  his 
lecture,  Professor  Huxley  had  in  his  hands  the  volumes 
containing  the  above  quotations  along  with  multitudi- 
nous passages  of  kindred  meanings."  Learning  that 
these  words  were  taken  to  imply  that  Professor  Huxley 
had  adopted  views  set  forth  in  the  Ethics  without  ac- 
knowledgment, he  sent  a  copy  of  "  Evolutionary 
Ethics  "  on  which  he  wrote  "  a  few  undated  lines," 
signed  "  H.S."  A  reply  in  the  third  person  "  quite 
starled  "  Spencer,  who  had  no  thought  of  discourtesy 

1  With  this  description  of  Professor  Huxley's  views  the  reader 
may  compare,  besides  the  Romanes  lecture  itself,  the  Prolegomena 
published  later  (Huxley's  Collected  Essays,  vol.  ix.  Also  letter 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Common  in  Life  and  Letters,  ii.,  382). 

36 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

in  the  form  of  his  memorandum,  and  no  idea  that  the 
closing  sentence  of  "  Evolutionary  Ethics  "  could  be  in- 
terpreted to  imply  a  charge  of  appropriating  ideas  with- 
out acknowledgment.  An  exchange  of  conciliatory  notes 
dissipated  the  stormy  clouds  and  prepared  the  way  for 
the  final  reconciliation. 

FROM  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

24  October,  1893. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  that  you  are  ill  and  I  would 
gladly  do  anything  that  might  help  to  alleviate  perturba- 
tions of  either  mind  or  body. 

We  are  old  men  and  ought  to  be  old  friends.  Our 
estrangement  has  always  been  painful  to  me.  Let  there 
be  an  end  to  it.  For  my  part,  I  am  sorry  if  anything 
I  have  said  or  done  has  been,  or  has  seemed,  unjust. 

To  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

26  October,  1893. 

Your  sympathetic  letter  received  this  morning  has 
given  me  great  satisfaction.  We  are  both  of  us  approach- 
ing our  last  days,  .  .  .  and  to  whichever  of  us  survived 
it  would  have  been  a  sad  thought  had  forty  years  of 
friendship  ended  in  a  permanent  estrangement.  Hap- 
pily by  your  kind  expressions  that  danger  is  now  finally 
averted  and  cordial  relations  re-established. 

(ii.) 

When  examining  Spencer's  various  utterances  on  the 
Land  Question  in  A  Perplexed  Philosopher,  Mr.  Henry 
George  went  out  of  his  way  to  ascribe  the  changes  of 
view  to  unworthy  motives,  alleging  that  the  recantation 
of  early  opinions  had  been  made  with  a  view  to  curry 
favour  with  the  upper  classes.  This  attack  upon  his 
character  Spencer  felt  very  keenly.  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
37 

50959 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Skilton  of  New  York,  dated  6  January,  1893,  he  says  he 
would  himself  decline  to  take  notice  of  such  publication. 

My  American  friends  may,  however,  if  they  like,  take 
the  matter  up,  and  may  effectually  dispose  of  its  libel- 
lous statements.  By  way  of  aiding  them  in  doing  this, 
I  will  put  down  sundry  facts  which  they  may  incorpo- 
rate as  they  see  well. 

In  the  first  place,  irrespective  of  numerous  utterly 
false  insinuations,  there  are  two  direct  falsehoods.  .  .  . 

The  first  of  them  is  contained  in  the  Introduction,  p. 
9,  where  he  says  I  have  placed  myself  "  definitely  on  the 
side  of  those  who  contend  that  the  treatment  of  land  as 
private  property  cannot  equitably  be  interfered  with." 
I  have  said  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  have  continued  to 
maintain  that  the  right  of  the  whole  community  to  the 
land  survives  and  can  never  be  destroyed;  but  I  have 
said  .  .  .  that  the  community  cannot  equitably  resume 
possession  of  the  land  without  making  compensation  for 
all  that  value  given  to  it  by  the  labour  of  successive 
generations.  .  .  .  The  sole  difference  between  my  posi- 
tion in  Social  Statics  and  my  more  recent  position  is 
this :  In  Social  Statics  I  have  .  .  .  tacitly  assumed  that 
such  compensation,  if  made,  would  leave  a  balance  of 
benefit  to  the  community.  Contrariwise,  on  more  care- 
fully considering  the  matter  in  recent  years,  I  have 
reached  the  conclusion  that  to  make  anything  like  equi- 
table compensation  the  amount  required  would  be  such 
as  to  make  the  transaction  a  losing  one.  .  .  .  And  .  .  . 
I  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  system  of  public  admin- 
istration, full  of  the  vices  of  officialism,  would  involve 
more  evils  than  the  present  system  of  private  adminis- 
tration. .  .  . 

The  second  falsehood  is  the  statement  on  p.  201  that 
"  the  name  of  Herbert  Spencer  now  appears  with  those 
of  about  all  the  dukes  in  the  kingdom  as  the  director  of 
an  association  formed  for  the  purpose  of  defending  pri- 
vate property  in  land."  ...  So  far  as  I  know  there  is 
38 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

no  such  association  at  all.  The  only  association  which 
can  be  referred  to  is  the  Liberty  and  Property  Defence 
League,  .  .  .  but  I  am  not  a  member  of  that  association. 
...  If  he  means  the  Ratepayers'  Defence  League,  the 
reply  is  that  this  is  not  an  association  for  defending 
landed  property,  but  for  defending  the  interests  of  occu- 
piers, and  I  joined  it  as  a  ratepayer  to  check  the  ex- 
travagant demands  on  ratepayers  made  by  the  County 
Council.  .  .  . 

As  to  the  alleged  cultivation  of  social  relations  with 
the  landed  classes,  it  is  sufficiently  disposed  of  by  the 
fact  that  ever  since  my  visit  to  America  I  have  been  so 
great  an  invalid  as  to  be  prevented  from  going  into 
society.  Not  once  in  the  course  of  the  last  ten  years  have 
I  had  any  social  intercourse  with  those  of  the  classes 
referred  to. 

By  way  of  meeting  the  various  counts  of  Mr.  George's 
indictment  respecting  motives,  I  will  set  down  the  facts, 
which  prove  motives  exactly  contrary  to  those  he  alleges. 

The  first  concern  pecuniary  advantages.  The  first 
line  of  his  motto  from  Browning  is  "  Just  for  a  handful 
of  silver  he  left  us."  The  facts  of  my  career  are  these. 
For  the  first  ten  years,  from  1850-60,  I  lost  by  every 
book  published ;  the  returns  not  sufficing  to  anything  like 
repay  printing  expenses.  During  a  period  of  nearly 
ten  years  subsequently,  the  returns  on  my  further  books 
were  so  small  as  not  to  meet  my  necessary  expenses,  so 
that  I  had  continually  to  trench  upon  my  small  prop- 
erty, gradually  going  the  way  to  ruin  myself,  until  at 
length  I  notified  that  I  must  discontinue  altogether:  one 
result  of  this  notification  being  the  American  testimonial. 
When,  some  little  time  after,  the  tide  turned  and  my 
works  began  to  be  remunerative,  what  was  my  course? 
Still  living  as  economically  as  possible,  I  devoted  the 
whole  surplus  of  my  returns  to  the  payments  for  com- 
pilation and  printing  of  the  Descriptive  Sociology,  and 
this  I  continued  to  do  for  a  dozen  years,  until,  year  by 
year  deliberately  sinking  money,  I  had  lost  between 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

£3,000  and  £4,000  (over  £4,000  if  interest  on  capital 
sunk  be  counted).  I  finally  ceased,  not  only  because  I 
could  no  longer  afford  to  lose  at  this  rate,  but  because 
the  work  was  altogether  unappreciated.  This  was  not 
the  course  of  a  man  who  was  to  be  tempted  by  "  a  hand- 
ful of  silver!  " 

The  second  line  of  his  motto  is  "  Just  for  a  ribbon  to 
stick  in  his  coat."  If,  as  it  seems,  this  quotation  is  in- 
tended to  imply  my  anxiety  for  honours,  no  allegation 
more  absolutely  at  variance  with  well-known  facts  could 
be  made.  ...  It  is  said  that  I  seek  political  honours. 
Well,  if  so,  I  could  not  have  gone  about  to  achieve  them 
in  more  absurd  ways.  ...  I  have  singled  out  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, at  that  time  Prime  Minister,  as  a  sample  of  the 
unscientific  mind ;  and  more  recently  ...  I  have  singled 
out  the  then  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Salisbury,  to  ridicule 
his  reasoning.  So  that  by  way  of  achieving  honours  ac- 
corded by  the  State,  I  have  spoken  disrespectfully  of  the 
two  men  who  had  in  their  hands  the  distribution  of  such 
honours. 

To  C.  KEGAN  PAUL. 

10  January,  1893. 

This  morning  announces  the  publication  of  a  book  by 
you  entitled  A  Perplexed  Philosopher  by  Mr.  Henry 
George.  Have  you  looked  at  it?  You  need  not  look 
far :  it  will  suffice  if  you  read  the  quotation  from  Brown- 
ing on  the  title  page. 

Probably  you  know  enough  about  my  career  to  judge 
what  warrant  there  is  for  the  implied  parallel,  and 
whether  you  think  it  desirable  to  identify  yourself  with 
the  book  as  its  publisher. 

12  January. — My  letter  gave  no  indication  of  any 
objection  I  have  to  critical  argument;  even  the  most 
trenchant.  That,  with  my  antecedents,  you  should  as- 
sume that  I  have  any  objection  to  an  attack  upon  my 
views  surprises  me. 

40 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

But  I  spoke  of  the  book  as  a  ' '  laboured  calumny, ' '  and 
I  thought  that  you  might  not  like  to  be  instrumental 
in  circulating  libellous  statements. 

To  JAMES  A.  SKILTON. 

1  March,  1893. 

You  appear  to  look  largely  or  mainly  at  the  general 
question,  whereas  to  me  the  general  question  is  of  no 
importance.  The  Synthetic  Philosophy  can  take  care 
of  itself.  .  .  .  Similarly  about  the  Land  Question.  I 
have  never  dreamed  of  entering  into  controversy  with 
Mr.  Henry  George  about  that  or  anything  else.  .  .  . 

The  only  thing  about  which  I  am  concerned  is  the 
personal  question — the  vile  calumny  which  the  man 
propagates,  and  the  only  question  is  whether  it  is  worth 
while  to  do  anything  in  the  way  of  rebutting  this. 

He  was  anxious  that  the  authenticity  of  the  facts  com- 
municated to  Mr.  Skilton  should  be  guaranteed  by  more 
than  one  name.  The  reply  was  accordingly  prepared  by 
a  committee  formed  from  among  his  New  York  friends, 
and  published  in  the  Tribune  (November  12). 

To  JAMES  A.  SKILTON. 

ST.  LEONARDS,  25  November,  1894. 

Thank  you  for  all  the  trouble  you  have  taken  in  the 
George  business.  There  have  been  in  the  course  of  the 
arrangements  sundry  dangers  which  have  now  been  hap- 
pily avoided,  and  the  final  result  is  as  good  as  I  could 
wish.  Whatever  Mr.  George  may  say,  I  do  not  think  he 
will  succeed  in  neutralizing  this  effective  exposure.  .  .  . 

If  you  feel  inclined  now  to  make  a  flank  attack  by 
dealing  with  Henry  George  and  his  doctrines,  by  all 
means  do  so,  but  if  you  do,  please  take  care  not  to  bring 
my  name  or  my  views  into  the  matter.  I  do  not  wish 
to  be  in  any  way  implicated. 
41 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

13  December. — A  few  days  ago  I  decided  that  by  way 
of  setting  finally  at  rest  this  abominable  business  in 
America,  it  would  be  well  if  I  published  there  the 
pamphlet  referred  to  in  the  inclosed  preface  which  I 
drew  up  for  it — a  pamphlet  not  at  all  in  any  direct  way 
replying  to  Mr.  George,  but  indirectly  disposing  of  his 
allegations.  I  have,  however,  since  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  this  course  may  be  of  doubtful  policy,  since, 
conclusively  disproving  all  he  says  as  the  pamphlet  does, 
it  will,  nevertheless,  furnish  him  with  texts  for  further 
diatribes.  I  send  over  the  preface  to  you  and  to  your 
co-signatories  to  ask  an  opinion  on  this  point.  .  .  . 

From  the  above  you  will  see  that  I  hesitate  a  little 
as  to  the  propriety  of  giving  Mr.  George  any  further  op- 
portunities of  carrying  on  the  controversy,  and  for  this 
same  reason  I  hesitate  respecting  your  proposed  war  with 
him  carried  on  independently. 

24  December. — I  am  again  in  two  minds  as  to  the  best 
course  to  pursue.  It  does  not  matter  how  conclusive  the 
case  may  be  made  against  Mr.  George,  he  will  still  go  on 
arguing  and  asserting  and  multiplying  side  issues  about 
irrelevant  matters.  The  politic  course,  therefore,  is  to 
make  one  good  point  and  there  leave  it. 

If  I  am  right  in  the  inference  that  in  Progress  and 
Poverty  he  said  nothing  about  my  insisting  on  compen- 
sation, that  should  be  the  point  made. 

12  January,  1895. — Lies  and  treacheries  are  imple- 
ments of  war  regarded  as  quite  legitimate  in  actual  war. 
I  saw  a  while  ago  in  some  speech  of  a  trade-unionist,  that 
they  regarded  their  relations  with  the  masters  as  a  state 
of  war,  and  that  their  acts,  ordinarily  regarded  as  crim- 
inal, were  legitimate.  Doubtless  Mr.  George  and  the 
Land  Nationalizers  think  the  same  thing  and  are  pre- 
pared to  abandon  all  moral  restraint  in  pursuit  of  their 
ends.  Hence  this  proceeding  of  his — congruous  with  all 
his  other  proceedings.  Hence,  too,  similar  proceedings 
42 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

over  here.  Though  I  interdicted  the  republication  of 
the  correspondence  in  the  Daily  Chronicle  along  with 
that  pamphlet  you  .have,  yet  they  have  now  issued  it 
separately  without  asking  me.  .  .  . 

As  to  your  proposals  for  a  brief  treatise  on  the  Land 
Question  at  large  from  me  in  further  explanation,  I  do 
not  see  my  way.  If  I  were  to  say  anything  more  .  .  . 
it  would  be  merely  in  further  explanation  of  the  attitude 
I  have  taken.  ...  As  to  anything  larger,  such  as  you 
adumbrate — a  general  [conception]  of  the  relations  of 
men  to  the  soil  based  on  general  sociological  principles, 
I  have  got  nothing  to  say. 

The  correspondence  in  the  Daily  Chronicle  referred 
to  in  the  last  quoted  letter  arose  out  of  the  leaflet  issued 
with  Spencer's  assent  by  the  Land  Restoration  League, 
giving  in  parallel  columns  extracts  from  Social  Statics 
and  from  "  Justice." 

The  matter  might  have  ended  here  but  for  a  lecture 
by  Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  junr.,  delivered  in  New 
York  on  6th  January,  1895. 

To  WILLIAM  JAY  YOUMANS. 

22  January,  1895. 

The  inclosed  report  of  Mr.  Garrison's  lecture,  which 
Mr.  Skilton  has  sent  me,  opens  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
it  is  needful  that  the  public  should  be  disabused  of  the 
notion  that  I  have  changed  my  essential  convictions. 
The  whole  of  Mr.  George's  vituperation  and  the  whole 
of  this  lecture  proceed  on  the  assumption  that  I  have 
repudiated  my  views  on  the  ownership  of  land,  which  I 
have  not,  having  only  changed  my  view  with  regard  to 
the  financial  policy  of  a  change.  If  this  fact  is  made 
clear  it  takes  the  wind  out  of  Mr.  George's  sails. 

Inclosed  I  send  the  draft  of  a  letter  in  which  this  is 
demonstrated,  and  unless  you  see  strong  reason  to  the 
43 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

contrary,  I  should  be  glad  if  some  one — either  yourself, 
or  Dr.  Janes,  or  Mr.  Skilton — would  publish  this  letter 
in  The  Tribune  or  elsewhere;  if  possible,  in  several 
places. 

On  the  advice  of  Mr.  Skilton  and  Dr.  W.  J.  Youmans 
the  letter  was  published  as  a  preface  to  the  parallel- 
column  pamphlet  on  the  Land  Question.1 

To  JAMES  A.  SKILTON. 

22  February,  1895. 

Herewith  I  enclose  the  postscript  for  the  pamphlet. 
In  pursuance  of  the  resolution  which  you  intimate  to 
me  as  agreed  upon  by  friends,  the  pamphlet  may  now 
with  its  preface  and  postscript  be  issued  without  further 
delay.  With  its  issue  I  must  wash  my  hands  entirely 
of  the  whole  of  the  George  business. 

The  correspondence  continued  in  a  somewhat  desul- 
tory fashion  into  the  following  year.  Into  the  merits 
of  the  controversy  it  is  unnecessary  now  to  enter.  It 
has  already  lost  whatever  interest  it  may  have  had  for 
the  general  reader.  The  foregoing  outline  of  a  very 
lengthy  correspondence  seemed  expedient,  however,  be- 
cause it  throws  into  relief  two  characteristics  of  Spencer 
— his  morbid  sensitiveness  to  insinuations  against  the 
purity  of  his  motives,  and  the  undue  weight  he  attached 
to  charges  of  intellectual  inconsistency.  To  these  two 
points  all  his  letters  in  the  correspondence  are  addressed. 
As  for  the  aspersion  on  his  moral  character,  it  is  easy 
for  an  outsider  to  say  that  he  might  have  treated  it  with 

1  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  on  the  Land  Question,  published  by  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1895. 

44 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

silent  contempt,  but  few  persons,  when  their  character 
is  attacked,  can  adopt  an  attitude  of  callous  indifference. 


The  earliest  notice  of  Dr.  Weismann  to  be  found  in 
the  correspondence  is  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Howard  Collins 
(26  February,  1890),  in  which  reference  is  made  to  an 
article  in  Nature  (6  February).  A  few  days  after  this 
he  wrote  to  Nature  (6  March)  that  it  would  "  be  as  well 
to  recall  the  belief  of  one  whose  judgment  was  not  with- 
out weight,  and  to  give  some  of  the  evidence  on  which 
that  belief  was  founded."  "  Clearly  the  first  thing  to 
be  done  by  those  who  deny  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters  is  to  show  that  the  evidence  Mr.  Darwin  has 
furnished  ...  is  all  worthless."  To  this  suggestion 
Professor  Ray  Lankester  responded  in  Nature  (27 
March)  that  biologists  had  already  considered  the  cases 
cited  by  Mr.  Darwin.  "It  is  extremely  unfortunate 
that  Mr.  Spencer  has  not  come  across  the  work  in  which 
this  is  done." 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

1  April,  1890. 

I  have  sent  to  Nature  (3  April)  ...  a  short  letter 
a  propos  of  the  question  of  inherited  effects  of  use  and 
disuse,  or  rather  presenting  a  problem  to  those  who 
assign  "  panmixia  "  as  an  adequate  cause  for  decline 
in  the  size  of  disused  organs. 

I  have  taken  the  case  of  the  drooping  ears  of  many 
domesticated  animals.  .  .  .  The  point  to  insist  on  will 
be,  first,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  in  domestic  animals  no 
selection  either  natural  or  artificial  goes  on  in  such  way 
as  to  make  economy  in  the  nutrition  of  an  organ  impor- 
tant for  the  survival  of  the  individual,  and  that  in  fact 
45 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

no  individuals  survive  from  economical  distribution  of 
nutriment  such  as  would  cause  decrease  in  unused 
organs.  Then,  second,  beyond  that,  the  point  to  be  in- 
sisted upon  is  that  these  muscles  are  of  such  extremely 
small  size  that  no  economy  in  the  nutrition  of  them 
could  affect  the  fate  even  of  animals  subject  to  the 
struggle  for  existence  and  profiting  by  economical  dis- 
tribution of  nutriment. 

With  the  view  of  emphasising  this  last  point,  I  should 
very  much  like  to  have  it  ascertained  and  stated  what 
are  the  weights  of  the  muscles  which  move  the  ears  in  a 
cow. 

Against  others  than  biologists  he  had  to  defend  his 
position.  In  an  address  as  Lord  Rector  of  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity in  November,  1891,  Mr.  A.  J.  Balfour  referred  to 
the  theory  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  ap- 
plied by  Spencer  "  so  persistently  in  every  department 
of  his  theory  of  man,  that  were  it  to  be  upset,  it  is 
scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  his  Ethics,  his  Psychology, 
and  his  Anthropology  would  all  tumble  to  the  ground 
with  it."  The  expediency  of  replying  to  this  and  other 
points  in  the  address  and  the  form  the  reply  should 
take  were  discussed  with  Mr.  Collins. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

30  November,  1891. 

I  have  sent  Mr.  Balfour  a  copy  of  Factors  of  Organic 
Evolution.  Suppose  you  send  him  a  copy  of  your 
pamphlet  on  the  Jaw  as  bearing  on  the  question  of  in- 
heritance of  acquired  characters. 

6  December. — Do  not  in  your  specification  of  points 
to  be  taken  up  versus  Balfour  do  more  than  just  give 
me  the  heads  of  them  so  far  as  to  show  your  lines  of 
argument. 

46 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

7  December. — I  hesitate  about  your  article  on  Mr. 
Balfour.  Various  of  the  points  are  good,  though  you 
have  omitted  the  two  which  I  should  myself  have  taken 
up.  But  it  is  undesirable  to  have  it  done  unless  it  is 
done  in  an  almost  unanswerable  way,  and  I  feel  that  a 
good  deal  of  critical  oversight  from  me  would  be  needful. 
This  would  entail  more  labour  than  I  can  afford.  .  .  . 
Moreover,  the  thing  would  be  almost  certain  to  entail 
controversy — probably  Mr.  Lilly  would  "  go  for  "  you 
— and  eventually  I  might  be  drawn  into  the  matter.  .  .  . 
The  only  safe  way  that  occurs  to  me  is  that  of  setting 
down  a  number  of  "  Questions  for  Mr.  Balfour,"  which 
might  be  the  title. 

12  December. — The  temptation  to  do  good  has  to  be 
resisted  sometimes  as  well  as  the  temptation  to  do  evil; 
and  I  now  illustrate  this  truth  in  having  resisted  the 
temptation  to  reply  to  Mr.  Balfour.  It  is  a  strong  temp- 
tation, and  I  should  greatly  enjoy  a  little  slashing 
polemic  after  two  years  of  continuous  exposition. 

22  January,  1892. — Recently  a  member  of  the 
Athenaeum  named  to  me  certain  investigations,  made  by 
a  medical  man,  I  think,  showing  that  colour-blindness 
is  more  frequent  among  Quakers  than  among  other 
people;  and  thinking  over  the  matter  since,  this  recalled 
a  vague  recollection  which  I  have  that  somebody — I 
think  at  Darlington — had  found  that  a  bad  ear  for  music 
was  more  common  among  Quakers  than  among  others. 
Now  if  these  two  things  can  be  proved,  they  alone  may 
serve  to  establish  the  hereditary  transmission  of  effects 
of  disuse.  Here  is  a  direction  in  which  you  may  work. 

Mr.  Collins 's  pamphlet  on  "  The  Jaw  as  bearing  on 

the  question  of  Acquired  Characters,"  mentioned  above, 

had  been  prepared  at  Spencer's  instigation.     Before  its 

issue  a  brief  abstract  was  sent  to  Nature,  which  took  no 

47 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

notice  of  it;  thus  furnishing  occasion  for  insinuations 
of  bias,  which  were  repudiated  when  the  pamphlet 
was  reviewed  later  (6  August,  1891).  In  October,  1892, 
Spencer  again  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  con- 
duct of  Nature,  adding:  "  I  shall  not  let  the  matter 
drop ;  and  if  this  burking  of  evidence  is  persisted  in,  I 
will  expose  the  matter  be  the  cost  what  it  may." 

To  J.  NORMAN  LOCKYER. 

19  November,  1892. 

I  presume  you  have  not  read  Mr.  Collins 's  letter  on 
"  Use  and  Heredity  "  enclosed,  and  that  it  has  been  de- 
clined by  your  referee  rather  than  by  yourself.  It  is  an 
important  letter  giving  the  results  of  careful  inquiries, 
and  the  question  on  which  it  bears  is  the  most  momen- 
tous with  which  science  is  at  present  concerned,  for 
it  bears  on  our  fundamental  conceptions  of  human  na- 
ture, of  human  progress,  and  of  legislation. 

For  some  time  past  it  has  been  manifest  that  the  con- 
ducting of  Nature  has  been  such  as  to  favour  those  who 
take  one  side  of  the  controversy  on  this  question.  .  .  . 

Curiously  enough,  I  am  about  to  commence  on  Mon- 
day a  letter  setting  forth  a  new  kind  of  evidence  bearing, 
as  I  think,  in  a  conclusive  way  upon  the  matter,  and  I 
was  of  course  intending  to  send  this  letter  to  Nature. 
As  things  stand,  however,  it  seems  scarcely  worth  while 
to  do  this,  and  I  may  probably  have  to  diffuse  it  among 
men  of  science  in  a  separate  form. 

In  a  subsequent  letter  (23  December)  he  examined 
in  detail  the  reasons  assigned  for  rejecting  Mr.  Collins 's 
letter,  the  principal  one  being  the  insufficiency  of  the 
data  brought  forward  respecting  the  variation  in  the 
size  of  jaws  in  certain  races  consequent  on  a  variation 
of  function.  The  evidence  was,  in  his  opinion,  suffi- 
48 


LATTER  DAY  CONTEOVERSIES 

ciently  cogent  to  justify  acceptance.    Meanwhile  he  had 
taken  steps  to  deal  with  the  general  question. 

To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  Contemporary  Review. 

21  November,  1892. 

I  have  in  contemplation  an  article,  the  object  of  which 
will  be  to  raise,  for  more  definite  consideration,  certain 
aspects  of  the  doctrine  of  Natural  Selection :  the  purpose 
being  to  show  that  Natural  Selection  taken  alone  is  ut- 
terly inadequate  to  account  for  the  facts  of  organic  evo- 
lution. Two  out  of  the  three  reasons  I  have  already  in- 
dicated, but  I  propose  now  to  set  them  forth  more  fully 
and  as  a  distinct  challenge  to  those  who  think  that 
Natural  Selection  alone  suffices;  requiring  of  them  to 
deal  with  these  insurmountable  difficulties,  as  I  consider 
them  to  be.  The  third  reason  is.  an  entirely  new  one, 
recently  arrived  at. 

"  The  Inadequacy  of  Natural  Selection,"  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Contemporary  Review,  in  February  and 
March,  1893,  was  the  occasion  for  the  first  interchange 
of  letters  between  him  and  the  late  Duke  of  Argyll,  who 
addressed  him  as  an  acquaintance  on  the  strength  of 
their  having  once  met  at,  he  thought,  "  one  of  Monck- 
ton  Milnes'  breakfasts." 

To  THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL. 

8  March,  1893. 

I  am  much  obliged  by  your  kindly  expressed  letter  of 
the  4th,  and  am  gratified  to  receive  indication  of  your 
partial  if  not  entire  agreement. 

I  have  an  agreeable  remembrance  of  the  incident  to 

which  you  refer,  though  my  impression  as  to  time  and 

place  is  not  the  same.     The  occasion,  I  believe,  was  a 

dinner  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  when  he  resided 

49 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

in  Harley  Street.  My  recollection  includes  a  brief  in- 
terchange of  remarks  respecting  a  geological  formation 
on  the  shores  of  Loch  Aline,  where  I  frequently  visited 
friends  owning  the  Ardtornish  estate. 

.  .  .  The  essay  in  the  Contemporary,  with  sundry 
postscripts,  I  intend  to  republish  next  month  for  broad- 
cast distribution  throughout  England,  Europe  and 
America.  May  I,  in  one  of  the  postscripts,  express  my 
indebtedness  to  you  for  drawing  my  attention  to  the 
case  of  the  negroes?.  .  -1 

One  of  the  postscripts  to  which  I  have  referred  will 
be  devoted  to  dealing  with  the  points  on  which  your 
letter  comments,  namely,  the  misapprehension  current 
among  biologists  concerning  the  nature  of  the  belief  in 
natural  selection,  with  the  view  of  showing  that  they  are 
proposing  to  overturn,  by  a  fallacious  inference  from  an 
inference,  certain  results  of  direct  observation. 

I  quite  admit  the  multitudinous  difficulties  which 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  as  inter- 
preted solely  by  the  two  factors  named,  but  I  hesitate  to 
allege  another  factor,  knowing  how  often  it  has  hap- 
pened that  problems  which  appear  insoluble  are  readily 
solved  when  the  method  is  disclosed. 

The  controversy  was  also  the  means  of  renewing  an 
acquaintanceship  of  very  old  standing.  Seeking  "  a 
piece  of  information  "  for  use  in  the  Weismann  con- 
troversy, he  wrote  to  Dr.  David  Sharp,  of  the  University 
Museum  of  Zoology,  Cambridge,  assuming  him  to  be  the 
David  Sharp  with  whose  father  he  had  lived  at  13, 
Loudoun  Road,  St.  John's  "Wood,  in  1857-58.  "  Some 
day  when  in  London,  if  you  would  call  upon  me,  .  .  . 
I  should  be  glad  to  renew  old  memories. ' ' 2 

1  See  pamphlet,  p.  60.     The  Duke's  name  was  omitted,  he  says, 
"lest  some  ill-natured  people  should  regard  me  as  a  snob." 
1  Autobiography,  ii.,  31. 

50 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

Spencer's  article  set  the  ball  rolling.  Dr.  Chalmers 
Mitchell  pointed  out  in  Nature  (15  February,  1893) 
that  "  in  the  matter  of  Panmixia,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
has  misunderstood  Weismann  completely.  Panmixia 
does  not  imply  selection  of  smaller  varieties,  but  the  ces- 
sation of  the  elimination  of  smaller  or  more  imperfect 
varieties."  In  the  Contemporary  Review  for  April  Mr. 
Romanes  noted  that  Spencer  did  not  see  the  difference 
between  the  new  doctrine  of  Panmixia,  or  cessation  of 
Selection,  and  the  old  doctrine  of  Reversal  of  Selection ; 
both  of  which  are  causes  of  degeneration.  Correspond- 
ence with  Mr.  Romanes  followed  during  the  next  few 
months,  "  but  without  getting  any  '  forerder,'  "  as  Mr. 
Romanes  remarked  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Thistleton  Dyer  in 
July.1 

Meanwhile  he  was  busy  with  another  article — "  Pro- 
fessor Weismann 's  Theories  " — published  in  the  Con- 
temporary for  May,  and  circulated  as  a  postscript  to  the 
previous  articles.  "It  is  a  keen  piece  of  controversy, 
but  I  wish  you  were  well  out  of  it,"  was  Professor 
Tyndall's  comment.  Mr.  George  Henslow  expressed 
cordial  agreement ;  sending  also  a  copy  of  ' '  two  chap- 
ters in  a  work  on  which  I  am  engaged  in  which  I  en- 
deavour to  prove  that  the  peculiarities  of  plants  resid- 
ing in  deserts,  water,  Alpine  regions,  &c.,  are  in  all  cases 
due  to  the  response  of  the  plants  themselves  to  their  en- 
vironments respectively,  without  the  aid  of  Natural 
Selection  as  far  as  structure  is  concerned."  Another 
correspondent — Sir  Edward  Fry — had  arrived  at  the 
opinion  that  the  various  ways  in  which  mosses  are  re- 
produced furnished  a  strong  argument  against  Pro- 

1  Life  of  G.  J.  Romanes,  p.  307. 
51 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

fessor  Weismann.    A  copy  of  his  work  on  British  Mosses 
was,  therefore,  sent  to  Spencer. 

To  SIR  EDWARD  FRY. 

7  June,  1893. 

I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  note  and  the 
accompanying  volume.  The  facts  it  contains  would  have 
been  of  great  use  to  me  in  writing  the  late  articles  in 
the  Contemporary,  had  I  known  them.  To  me  it  seems 
that  of  themselves  they  suffice  to  dispose  of  Weismann 's 
hypothesis,  the  wide  acceptance  of  which  I  think  dis- 
creditable to  the  biological  world. 

The  hypothesis  of  a  "  germ-plasm,"  as  distinguished 
from  the  general  protoplasm,  seems  to  me  a  pure  fic- 
tion, utterly  superfluous,  and  utterly  discountenanced  by 
the  facts;  and  the  phenomena  presented  by  the  mosses 
are  among  those  showing  in  the  clearest  way  that  there 
is  but  one  plasm  capable  of  assuming  the  form  of  the 
organism  to  which  it  belongs  when  placed  in  fit  condi- 
tions: one  of  the  fit  conditions  being  absence  of  any 
considerable  tissue-differentiation. 

On  the  side  of  Professor  Weismann,  Mr.  Romanes 
again  came  forward  (Contemporary  for  July),  the  proof 
being  sent  to  Spencer,  who  wrote  a  note  to  be  printed 
with  the  article.  Professor  Marcus  Hartog,  in  the  same 
number,  wrote  against  Weismannism,  also  criticising 
Mr.  Wallace.  As  to  the  views  of  the  latter,  Spencer  had 
already  been  in  communication  with  Professor  Hartog. 

To  MARCUS  HARTOG. 

5  May,  1893. 

Have  you  looked  at  Mr.  Wallace's  article  in  the 
Fortnightly  ?  I  ...  am  astonished  at  the  nonsense  he 
is  writing.  He  seems  to  be  incapable  of  understanding 
the  point  at  issue.  On  page  660  especially,  he  actually 

52 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

concedes  the  whole  matter,  apparently  not  perceiving 
that  he  does  so.  This  ought  at  any  rate  to  be  effectually 
pointed  out,  since  committing  suicide  as  he  thus  does, 
there  is  one  antagonist  less  to  deal  with. 

Professor  Weismann  himself  now  intervened  in  an 
article  entitled  "  The  All- Sufficiency  of  Natural  Selec- 
tion, ' '  the  first  part  of  which — replying  to  Spencer — ap- 
peared in  the  Contemporary  Review  in  September,  and 
the  second  in  October.  Professor  Hartog  proposed  to 
reply  to  Weismann 's  Part  I.  in  case  Spencer  did  not. 

To  MARCUS  HARTOG. 

BRIGHTON,  22  September,  1893. 

Thanks  for  your  proposal  to  take  up  Weismann  in 
case  I  do  not.  I  have,  however,  decided  to  respond  to 
him  myself,  and  am  even  now  engaged  in  writing  an 
answer  *..... 

It  will,  I  think,  be  very  well,  however,  if  you  will 
keep  the  matter  in  mind  and  be  prepared  with  a  paper 
setting  forth  the  argument  which  you  briefly  indi- 
cate. .  .  . 

P.S. — If  you  write  such  a  letter,  pray  do  not  admit 
that  Weismann  has  shown  that  the  specialisations  of 
social  insects  can  be  interpreted  only  as  due  to  natural 
selection.  I  am  about  to  contend  that  they  can  be  other- 
wise interpreted. 

Another  contribution  from  Spencer's  pen  appeared  in 
the  Contemporary  for  October,  1894,  under  the  heading 
"  Weismannism  Once  More." 

FROM  DAVID  SHARP. 

28  October,  1894. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  the  separate  copy  of 
"  Weismannism  Once  More  ";  containing  the  postscript 

1  Contemporary  Review  for  December,  1893. 

53 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

on  last  page  about  Hertwig,  which  I  had  not  seen  be- 
fore, and  which  I  think  very  good  and  interesting. 

The  view  that  evolutionists  will  ultimately  take  as  to 
the  essential  nature  of  reproduction  is  one  exactly  the 
antithesis  of  Weismann's,  viz.,  that  the  best  form  of 
germ  is  that  which  accurately  carries  the  processes  of 
the"  parents,  it  being  understood  that  the  processes  of 
the  parents  form  part  of  a  consensus  with  the  processes 
of  previous  parents.  This  last  qualification  is  very  im- 
portant, and  explains  why  I  have  long  felt  it  to  be  im- 
possible to  expect  any  considerable  inheritance  of  mutila- 
tions. 

I  hope  you  need  not  now  trouble  yourself  more  about 
Weismann.  I  feel  no  doubt  that  his  theory  will  before 
long  pass  into  discredit.  It  had  this  of  value  that  it 
endeavoured  to  substitute  a  genuine  conception  of  that 
awful  X  we  call  heredity. 

In  my  opinion  what  is  most  wanted  to  secure  the 
symmetry  and  add  to  the  permanent  value  of  your 
work  is  not  the  upsetting  of  Weismann,  but  that  chapter 
on  the  relations  of  the  inorganic  and  organic  which  in 
your  original  prospectus  you  pointed  out  ought  to  be 
written. 

Professor  Burdon  Sanderson  deprecated  "  the  accept- 
ance by  outsiders  of  the  scheme  of  doctrine  of  Professor 
Weismann  as  a  safe  basis  for  speculation,  and  still  more, 
the  way  in  which  it  is  now  dogmatically  taught  to  stu- 
dents of  what  is  called  Elementary  Biology." 

To  J.  S.  BURDON  SANDERSON. 

ST.  LEONARDS,  10  November,  1894. 
I  was  greatly  pleased  to  have  your  sympathetic  letter 
concerning  the  Weismann  business.  Coming  from  one 
whose  judgment  has  so  high  a  value  as  yours  the  general 
agreement  implied  was  a  source  of  much  satisfaction  to 
me. 

54 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

I  have  been  alike  astonished  and  exasperated  at  the 
manner  in  which  biologists  at  large  have  received  Weis- 
mann's  theory.  Considering  that  it  is  so  entirely  specu- 
lative and  cannot  assign,  so  far  as  I  know,  a  single  fact 
which  serves  for  proof,  it  is  amazing  that  men  who,  per- 
haps more  than  most  men  of  science,  rely  upon  facts, 
should  have  so  widely  accepted  it. 

Of  Sir  Edward  Fry's  letter  in  Nature  (1  November, 
1894),  discussing  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  acquired  " 
as  used  in  the  Weismann  controversy,  Spencer  writes : — 

To  SIR  EDWARD  FRY. 

3  November,  1894. 

I  am  glad  you  have  taken  up  the  matter  and  have 
brought  your  long-exercised  judicial  faculty  to  bear 
upon  the  definitions  of  the  words  used,  and  have  brought 
to  light  the  confusion  of  thought  in  which  the  matter  is 
at  present  involved. 

Until  the  introduction  of  the  phrase  "  acquired 
characters  "  within  these  few  years,  I  had  myself  al- 
ways used  the  expression  "  functionally-produced  modi- 
fications," and  all  through  The  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, published  in  pre-Darwinian  days,  the  phe- 
nomena of  evolution  are  ascribed  (far  too  exclusively, 
as  I  now  admit)  to  the  inheritance  of  functionally- 
produced  modifications.  This  phrase  is,  I  think,  the  bet- 
ter one,  as  excluding  various  misapprehensions,  and  I 
regret  now  that  I  ever,  for  brevity 's  sake,  adopted  the 
recent  phrase. 

The  controversy  was  now  practically  ended  as  far  as 

Spencer  was  concerned.     Professor  Weismann 's  article 

"  Heredity  Once  More  "  in  the  Contemporary  Review 

for  September,  1895,  called  forth  a  letter  from  Spencer 

55 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

under  the  same  title 1  in  which  he  agreed  with  Pro- 
fessor Weismann  that  further  controversy  would  be  fu- 
tile— "  especially  so  if  new  hypotheses  are  to  be  per- 
petually introduced  to  make  good  the  shortcomings  of 
the  old.  I  willingly  yield,  therefore,  to  his  suggestion 
to  ask  no  more  questions;  and  I  do  this  the  more  will- 
ingly, because  I  have  failed  to  get  any  answer  to  the 
crucial  question  which  I  asked  at  the  outset. ' ' 2 

It  is  not  for  a  layman  to  express  an  opinion  on  a 
question  that  divides  biologists  into  distinct  schools, 
more  especially  when  he  takes  into  account  the  weighty 
names  on  each  side  of  the  controversy.  At  the  same 
time,  bearing  in  mind  how  frequently  the  charge  of  a 
priori  reasoning  has  been  brought  against  Spencer,  one 
cannot  help  remarking  on  the  hypothetical  nature  of 
Professor  Weismann 's  premises  and  the  a  priori 
character  of  his  arguments.  The  demands  he  makes  on 
one's  credulity  are,  to  say  the  least,  not  less  numerous 
or  less  astounding  than  those  made  by  the  opposite 
school.  Professor  Marcus  Hartog's  description  of  Pro- 
fessor Weismann 's  work  on  Amphimixis,  may  be  ap- 
plied to  the  theory  as  a  whole.  It  is  "  a  magnified  castle 
built  by  the  a  priori  method  on  a  foundation  of  '  facts  ' 
carefully  selected,  and  for  the  most  part  ill-known,  mis- 
interpreted, or  incomplete."  One's  confidence  in  Pro- 
fessor Weismann 's  doctrine  is  apt  to  be  shaken  by  the 

1  See  Contemporary  Review,   October,    1895. 

1  Spencer's  articles  were  afterwards  reprinted  in  the  new  edi- 
tion of  the  Principles  of  Biology,  i.,  pp.  602-691,  Appendix  B.  In 
Appendix  C  (pp.  692-695)  a  summary  is  given  of  the  evidence  in 
favour  of  "The  Inheritance  of  functionally- wrought  Modifications." 
His  last  public  utterance  on  the  subject  is  to  be  found  in  a 
short  paper  on  "Some  Light  on  Use-inheritance,"  contained  in 
Facts  and  Comments  (pp.  128-134),  published  in  1902. 

56 


LATTER  DAY  CONTROVERSIES 

concessions  he  has  to  make:  such,  for  example,  as  the 
admission  that  the  germ-cells  do  not  lead  "  a  charmed 
life  "  uninfluenced  by  the  body-cells,  and  the  admission 
that  the  body-cells  may  carry  with  them  some  germ- 
plasm.  "  The  New  Biology  "  may,  in  course  of  time, 
help  us  to  adjust  the  claims  of  the  rival  theories. 


57 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 
(June,  1893— November,  1896) 

NEVER  had  a  change  from  London  been  more  wel- 
come than  in  1893.  His  domestic  troubles  had  utterly 
unhinged  him.  His  feelings  found  expression  in  a  letter 
to  Miss  Youmans  from  Pewsey.  "  My  relations  with 
the  Misses  —  -  will  hereafter,  I  fear,  be  not  altogether 
pleasant.  The  fact  that,  after  all  my  kindnesses  to  them, 
their  return  is  to  calumniate  me  to  their  friends  and  to 
some  of  my  friends  can  hardly  be  forgotten,  and  I  don't 
know  exactly  how  we  shall  get  on  with  that  fact  in 
my  consciousness."  To  put  the  evil  day  off  he  went  to 
Brighton  for  September.  There  was  no  lack  of  friends 
ever  ready  to  extend  hospitality ;  but  as  he  said  in  reply 
to  an  invitation  from  Lord  Dysart :  ' '  I  cannot  keep  well 
for  long  even  when  I  am  master  of  my  own  circum- 
stances, and  I  am  sure  to  go  wrong  in  health  when  I 
attempt  to  conform  my  daily  regime  to  the  routine  of 
any  other  house  than  my  own." 

Presentation  copies  of  books  afforded  opportunities  of 
enforcing  one  or  other  of  his  favourite  doctrines. 

To  HORACE  SEAL. 

11  July,  1893. 

I  am  much  obliged  by  the  copy  of  your  little  book  on 
The  Nature  of  State  Interference. 
58 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

Will  you  excuse  me  if  I  say  that  you  have  I  think, 
in  the  first  place,  identified  two  things  which  are  not  at 
all  to  be  identified — social  co-operation  and  State-inter- 
ference ;  and  that  you  have  in  the  second  place  not  dis- 
tinguished between  the  purposes  for  which  State-inter- 
ference is  peremptorily  demanded  and  those  for  which 
it  is  not  demanded.  Your  illustrations  of  the  advan- 
tages derived  from  what  you  rightly  consider  analogous 
to  State-interference  in  the  animal  kingdom  are  cases 
in  which  the  organism  has  to  operate  on  the  environment, 
and  for  this  purpose  unquestionably  State-interference 
— that  is  to  say,  centralization  of  the  powers  of  the  ag- 
gregate— is  essential;  but  it  is  not  called  for,  nor  ad- 
vantageous, for  carrying  on  the  processes  of  internal 
sustentation.  .  .  .  While  societies,  as  chiefly  in  the  past 
and  partly  in  the  present,  carry  on  predatory  activities 
upon  other  societies,  subordination  of  the  individual  to 
the  State  is  requisite,  and  is  and  must  be  the  more  ex- 
treme in  proportion  as  the  predatory  activities  are 
dominant;  but  in  proportion  as  societies  become  peace- 
ful, and  the  lives  they  carry  on  become  lives  of  internal 
activities  only,  the  need  decreases,  and  there  remains 
only  the  need  for  that  subordination  of  the  individual 
to  the  State  which  is  requisite  for  maintaining  orderly 
or  non-aggressive  cooperation.  Your  tacit  assumption 
that  Individualism  means  the  solitary  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  an  entire  misapprehension.  It  may  and  does 
go  along  with  an  elaborate  form  of  mutual  dependence. 


To  MRS.  ARTHUR  STANNARD. 

6  October,  1893. 

I  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  your  novel,  The  Soul  of  a 
Bishop.  .  .  . 

I  judge  of  the  purpose  of  the  book  from  the  last  few 
paragraphs.  You  will  scarcely  expect  me  to  coincide 
with  your  view. 

The  current  creed  represents  the  power  which  is  mani- 
59 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

fested  to  us  in  the  universe  as  having  created  myriads  of 
men  of  whom,  according  to  the  Christian  theory,  im- 
mensely the  greater  number  must  be  condemned  to 
eternal  torment.  If  one  man  were  to  condemn  another 
man  to  eternal  torment,  even  for  the  most  grievous  of- 
fence, and  calmly  looked  on  at  his  sufferings,  I  should 
regard  him  with  horror.  I  do  not  understand  why  my 
feeling  must  be  changed  when  in  place  of  a  man  a  God 
is  conceived,  and  in  place  of  a  single  sufferer  myriads 
of  sufferers — rather  would  it  be  intensified. 

Popular  nostrums  for  the  cure  of  social  disorders  he 
invariably  tested  by  appeal  to  experience  and  by  refer- 
ence to  underlying  principles.  There  was  no  lack  of 
sympathy  with  the  unhappy  lot  of  certain  sections  of 
society;  though  his  merciless  exposure  of  visionary,  sen- 
timental remedies  often  caused  him  to  be  considered 
unsympathetic.  He  felt  bound  to  give  expression  to  his 
deep-rooted  conviction  that  many  of  the  proposed  meas- 
ures of  relief  were  worthless  or  at  best  mere  palliatives, 
and  that  some  of  them  would  intensify  rather  than 
diminish  the  mischief  they  were  intended  to  remove. 
Again  and  again  did  he  urge  the  Hon.  Auberon  Herbert 
to  direct  his  energies  to  the  exposure  of  the  fallacious 
reasonings  and  useless  remedies  everywhere  met  with  in 
connexion  with  social  and  political  matters. 

To  THE  HON.  AUBERON  HERBERT. 

7  November,  1893. 

You  might  write  an  article  on  "  Experience  does  not 
make  Fools  wise."  For  this  you  may  take  as  text  the 
demand  for  a  "  living  wage,"  as  though  that  had  not 
been  tried  and  abandoned  centuries  ago.  And  again, 
under  the  same  head  the  proposal  to  provide  work  for 
the  unemployed,  as  though  that  had  not  been  tried  in 
60 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

workhouses  from  Elizabeth's  time  downwards  and  been 
a  miserable  failure. 

January,  1894. — At  present  nobody  is  content  with 
the  natural  rewards  of  his  own  efforts,  but  everybody 
wants  to  be  better  off  at  somebody  else's  expense.  This 
is  an  ethical  crime  and  will  bring  on  the  society  through- 
out which  it  prevails  the  punishment  of  criminality. 

TO   MONCUEE   D.    CONWAY. 

12  December,  1893. 

I  have  just  been  reading  in  the  Open  Court  your  first 
article  on  Liberty,  and  have  read  it  with  great  satisfac- 
tion. ...  As  you  rightly  point  out,  people  do  not  at 
all  understand  the  principles  of  liberty. 

But  here  there  is,  I  think,  a  shortcoming  in  your  con- 
ception. They  have  no  true  idea  of  liberty  because  they 
have  no  true  sentiment  of  liberty.  No  theory  is  of  much 
service  in  the  matter  without  a  character  responding  to 
the  theory — without  a  feeling  which  prompts  the  asser- 
tion of  individual  freedom  and  is  indignant  against  ag- 
gressions upon  that  freedom,  whether  against  self  or 
others.  Men  care  nothing  about  a  principle,  even  if 
they  understand  it,  unless  they  have  emotions  respond- 
ing to  it.  When  adequately  strong  the  appropriate  emo- 
tion prompts  resistance  to  interference  with  individual 
action,  whether  by  an  individual  tyrant  or  by  a  tyrant 
majority;  but  at  present,  in  the  absence  of  the  proper 
emotion,  there  exists  almost  everywhere  the  miserable 
superstition  that  the  majority  has  a  right  to  dictate  to 
the  individual  about  everything  whatever.  ...  To  dissi- 
pate the  superstition  that  the  majority  has  unlimited 
powers  is  of  more  importance  than  anything  else  in  the 
field  of  politics. 

His  hopes  of  completing  his  work  were  about  this 
time  by  no  means  bright — in  fact  he  told  a  friend  that 
61 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

its  completion  was  scarcely  probable.  In  such  a  frame  of 
mind  there  could  be  but  one  answer  to  Mr.  Romanes's 
enquiry  whether  he  would  give  next  year's  Romanes 
Lecture.  "  If  I  were  to  attempt  it  I  should  probably 
die  on  the  platform."  The  same  was  his  feeling  when 
invited  by  the  members  of  the  Oxford  University  Junior 
Scientific  Club  to  deliver  the  next  "  Robert  Boyle  "  lec- 
ture. His  doubts  as  to  the  probability  of  finishing  his 
work  were  strengthened  by  the  shock  he  received  on 
hearing  of  the  death  of  Professor  Tyndall.  He  himself 
was  to  winter  at  St.  Leonards  and  had  hoped  to  persuade 
the  Tyndalls  to  come  there. 

To  MRS.  TYNDALL. 

6  December,  1893. 

You  will  scarcely  need  to  be  told  how  shocked  I  was 
when  yesterday  morning  there  came  the  sad  news  of 
Dr.  Tyndall 's  death.  .  .  . 

The  consciousness  that  he  had  passed  so  weary  and 
suffering  a  life  for  a  long  time  past  must  be  in  some 
sort  a  set  off  to  the  grief  coming  upon  you,  and  that 
the  ending  has  been  so  sudden  and  painless  is  a  further 
set  off. 

In  respect  of  his  last  hours  he  was  in  fact  to 
be  envied.  Had  I  finished  my  task  I  should  be  very 
willing  to  promptly  pass  away  in  the  same  quiet 
manner. 

But  I  well  know  that  in  these  cases  words  of  consola- 
tion are  of  no  avail  and  only  lapse  of  time  can  bring 
mitigation. 

A  volume  by  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  dealing  amongst 
other  things  with  the  Ghost  Theory,  had  been  an- 
nounced. 

62 


JOHN  TYNDALL. 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

To  ANDREW  LANG. 

21  February,  1894. 

In  their  original  forms  Tylor's  view  and  mine  are 
distinctly  antithetical.  With  him  animism  is  original 
and  the  ghost-theory  derived.  .  .  .  Tylor  has  insensibly 
abandoned  his  original  view.  It  may,  however,  I  be- 
lieve, be  shown  that  by  more  than  one  there  had  previ- 
ously been  suggested  the  belief  that  the  Ghost- Theory 
is  the  root  of  religious  ideas. 

26  February. — By  way  of  criticism  upon  your  belief, 
or  half -belief,  let  me  suggest  to  you  that  the  great  diffi- 
culty is  in  getting  true  evidence.  People  are  so  careless 
in  their  observations  and  so  careless  in  their  statements, 
and  so  careless  in  their  repetitions !  .  .  . 

I  continually  meet  with  paragraphs  about  myself, 
many  absurd  and  many  utterly  baseless.  An  American 
interviewer  described  me  as  always  wearing  white 
gaiters.  I  never  wore  any  in  my  life.  It  was  said  that  I 
invariably  carry  an  umbrella,  and  a  bulky  one.  For 
many  years  past  I  have  not  walked  at  all,  and  when  I  did 
walk  I  never  carried  an  umbrella  unless  it  was  raining 
or  obviously  certain  to  rain.  It  is  said  that  I  take 
my  meals  alone  and  dislike  dining  with  others.  Abso- 
lutely the  reverse  is  the  fact.  I  dislike  to  take  a  meal 
alone.  I  was  asked  by  a  lady  whether  it  was  true  that 
I  lived  chiefly  on  bread  and  coffee;  a  statement  abso- 
lutely baseless.  I  was  asked  whether  I  changed  my  occu- 
pation every  ten  minutes — a  statement  which  had  a  cer- 
tain slight  basis,  but  an  extremely  small  one.  I  saw 
a  paragraph  stating  that  on  one  occasion  I  could  not 
manage  my  sister's  children.  The  only  sister  I  ever 
had  died  when  two  years  old.  .  .  .  And  so  on,  and  so  on, 
almost  without  end.  .  .  . 

Now  with  such  multitudinous  recklessnesses  of  state- 
ment as  these,  and  even  mistakes  of  identity,  how  is  it 
possible  to  put  any  confidence  in  testimonies  with  re- 
gard to  so-called  supernatural  occurrences?  .  .  . 
63 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Most  people  cannot  state  truly  what  they  see,  and 
most  people  cannot  re-state  truly  what  they  have  been 
told.  Hence  I  hold  it  far  more  likely  that  in  all  these 
cases  the  testimony  is  bad  than  that  the  alleged  phe- 
nomenon is  true. 

P.S. — Then  there  is  the  element  of  coincidence — an 
all-important  element.  Out  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
incidents  occurring  to  individuals  and  the  myriads  oc- 
curring to  the  members  of  a  community  it  is  certain  that 
some  should  have  a  strange  congruity.  These  congrui- 
ties  are  more  frequent  than  we  suppose.  I  can  give  you 
from  my  own  life  several  most  remarkable  ones. 

28  February. — A  question  of  statistics,  yes.  A  dreams 
he  meets  B ;  does  not  do  so,  and  thinks  nothing  about 
it.  Ten  thousand  such  cases  occur  nightly.  After  a 
million  cases  have  occurred  some  A  does  meet  some  B ; 
thinks  it  supernatural  and  talks  about  it.  Thus  the  non- 
coincidences  leave  no  marks ;  the  coincidences  survive. 

To  JOHN  FISKE. 

27  March,  1894. 

Thanks  for  the  sympathetic  expressions  of  your  dedi- 
cation, [of  the  Memoir  of  E.  L.  Youmans]  which  took  me 
by  surprise.  I  had  thought  nothing  about  a  dedication, 
but,  if  I  had,  I  would  have  suggested  that  the  sister 
should  have  been  the  honoured  person,  since  her  great 
devotion  to  him  through  so  many  years  gave  her  a  high 
claim.  [The  book]  will  doubtless  do  good  service  in 
bringing  that  posthumous  honour  to  Youmans  which  he 
so  amply  deserves.  So  self-sacrificing  a  servant  of 
humanity  is  rarely  met  with. 

The  "  disasters  and  perplexities  of  things  "  had  dur- 
ing the  spring  induced  a  condition  of  great  depression. 
His  friends  and  acquaintances  were  "  disappearing  at 
64 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

the  rate  of  twenty  a  year."  He  was  unhappy  in  his 
home  life.  His  despondency  was  increased  by  "  the 
atrocious  weather  "  he  experienced  in  Wiltshire.  His 
intention  had  been  that  this,  his  sixth  visit  to  Pewsey, 
should  last  till  the  end  of  September,  but  by  the  end  of 
June  he  was  tired  of  it.  The  patience  of  his  host  and 
hostess  was  also  showing  symptoms  of  giving  way,  ow- 
ing to  his  fastidiousness.  He  returned  to  town  in  the 
second  week  of  July,  and  on  the  recommendation  of  Dr. 
Buzzard  went  to  Cliftonville,  near  Margate,  for  August 
and  part  of  September. 

TO   G.   J.    HOLYOAKE. 

MARGATE,  10  September,  1894. 

Profoundly  averse  as  I  am  to  State-socialism  and 
State-meddling,  I  feel  bound  to  aid  all  efforts  to  en- 
courage the  only  type  of  industrial  organization  which 
holds  out  any  hope  of  better  things.  I  am  not  very  san- 
guine of  the  results,  for  it  seems  to  me  that  only  a  small 
proportion  of  men  are  good  enough  for  industrial  rela- 
tions of  a  high  type.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  everything 
should  be  done  to  facilitate  the  experiment,  and  I  there- 
fore send  you  a  subscription  of  two  guineas. 

17  September. — I  dislike  to  be  affiche,  as  the  French 
say,  and  I  have  of  late  years  suffered  much  from  being 
thus  placarded. 

A  while  ago  I  attended  what  I  supposed  to  be  a  pri- 
vate meeting  in  the  interests  of  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Children,  and  a  few  words  which 
I  was  induced  to  say,  were,  to  my  great  dismay,  re- 
ported in  the  next  day 's  papers,  so  that  I  had  to  explain 
that  my  remarks  were  made  without  much  considera- 
tion.1 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xx.,  p.  405. 
65 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

At  the  instigation  of  some  Jewish  periodical  I  ex- 
pressed my  detestation  of  the  persecutions  in  Russia, 
thoughtlessly  supposing  that  my  letter  would  have  no 
further  circulation.  But  it  got  quoted  in  certain  papers, 
not  only  here  but  on  the  Continent,  and  even  in  Russia, 
where,  as  Mr.  Caine  reported,  it  produced  a  howl — a 
result  which  I  had  never  intended. 

Last  year  I  was  led  to  send  a  contribution  to  the 
Anti-Gambling  League,  feeling  compelled  to  do  so  be- 
cause of  the  strong  condemnation  of  gambling  I  had 
uttered  in  The  Study  of  Sociology,  and  though  I  marked 
my  accompanying  note  "  private,"  its  substance,  or 
what  professed  erroneously  to  be  its  substance,  was  pub- 
lished in  the  evening  papers.1 

Then  just  recently,  as  you  must  have  seen,  my  protest 
against  the  misrepresentation  of  my  views  about  land- 
ownership  has  entangled  me  in  a  controversy  in  the 
Daily  Chronicle.2 

.  .  .  These  various  occurrences  are  liable  to  produce 
the  impression  that  I  want  to  pose  as  a  philanthropist 
or  as  an  aider  in  philanthropic  undertakings.  I  shrink 
from  any  such  interpretation. 

You  must  therefore  abide  by  my  endorsement  "  pri- 
vate," and  keep  my  note  unpublished;  and  you  must 
please  also  not  signalise  the  fact  that  I  have  contributed 
to  the  fund. 

His  German  translator,  Dr.  Vetter,  in  whose  intelli- 
gence and  judgment  Spencer  had  aways  placed  the  ut- 
most reliance,  had  died  early  in  1893.  Dr.  Vetter 's  place 
was  taken  in  the  following  year  by  Professor  Victor 
Carus.  One  of  his  French  translators,  M.  Auguste  Bur- 
deau,  was  also  removed  by  death.  This  meant  the  loss 
of  a  friend  for  whose  character  and  ability  Spencer  had 
a  genuine  regard. 

1  Supra,  chap,  xxi.,  p.  23.    2  Supra,  chap,  xxii.,  p.  41. 

66 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 
To  MADAME  BURDEAU. 

21  December,  1894. 

There  are  condolences  as  a  matter  of  form  and  there 
are  condolences  as  expressions  of  real  feeling.  Those 
which  I  now  offer  you  belong  to  the  latter  class.  For 
these  many  years  past  I  have  admired  M.  Burdeau. 
...  At  the  time  when  he  was  preparing  his  version  of 
my  Essays  I  was  struck  by  his  conscientious  care  to  en- 
sure accuracy.  .  .  .  The  traits  of  character  then  dis- 
closed on  small  occasions  have  since  been  disclosed  on 
large  occasions,  and  joined  with  his  intelligence  and  wide 
culture  made  him  so  valuable  a  servant  of  the  State. 
I  regret  in  common  with  his  countrymen  that  his 
character  and  capacity,  through  which  still  greater 
things  might  have  been  expected,  should  have  been  pre- 
maturely lost  to  France. 

He  had  never  got  over  his  disappointment  at  the  futile 
result  of  the  "  Record  of  Legislation  "  he  and  Mr.  Don- 
isthorpe  had  planned  and  begun  in  1892.  Circumstances 
at  the  end  of  1894  seemed  favourable  for  another  at- 
tempt being  made  to  rouse  public  interest. 

To  WORDSWORTH  DONISTHORPE. 

11  November,  1894. 

You  have  no  doubt  seen  in  the  papers  notices  of  Mr. 
Ilbert  's  scheme  for  a  comparative  record  of  Laws  of  the 
English  speaking  peoples.  This  is  so  nearly  allied  to 
the  scheme  of  a  record  of  English  laws  from  the  begin- 
ning that  I  think  it  is  desirable  to  make  public  the 
prior  movement.  ...  I  think  of  writing  a  letter  to  the 
Times  describing  what  you  and  I  had  done,  and  send- 
ing with  it  a  sample  of  the  impressions  taken  of  the 
tables  as  drawn  up,  by  way  of  showing  what  had  been 
accomplished.  ...  I  mean  to  embody  in  it  some  sar- 
castic criticisms  upon  the  wealthy  classes  as  to  their 
67 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

utter  lack  of  all  initiative  and  lack  of  all  conception  of 
any  but  the  most  commonplace  philanthropic  undertak- 
ings. 

18  November. — You  are  quite  welcome  to  mention  the 
fact  you  refer  to,  namely,  that  a  long  time  ago  I  enun- 
ciated the  doctrine  that  the  State  should  administer  civil 
justice  gratuitously.  There  is  a  passage  in  "  Justice  " 
setting  forth  this  doctrine  and  defending  it. 

23  November. — If  the  State  became  responsible  for  the 
administration  of  civil  justice  in  the  manner  implied  in 
the  passage  from  the  Principles  of  Ethics,  I  take  it  that 
an  entire  change  of  method  would  be  a  concomitant. 
The  State  would  now  not  stand  in  the  position  of  um- 
pire, but  would  become  an  active  investigator.  On  com- 
plaint being  made  to  the  local  authority  that  some  ag- 
gression had  been  committed  or  some  non-fulfilment  of 
an  agreement,  the  first  step  might  be  that  of  sending  an 
appointed  functionary — an  officer  of  first  instance — to 
interview  jointly  the  two  disputants,  and  hear  from  them 
their  respective  statements,  and  explain  to  them  the 
law  aifecting  the  matter.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the 
presence  or  absence  of  a  wrong  is  clear  enough,  and 
the  opinion  of  this  official  on  the  matter  would  suffice 
to  effect  a  settlement.  In  cases  where  one  of  the  dis- 
putants did  not  yield,  or  in  cases  where  the  official  him- 
self was  in  doubt,  there  would  then  be  a  reference  to  a 
higher  legal  authority,  before  whom,  with  the  aid  of  this 
officer  of  first  instance,  the  case  would  be  set  forth  and 
who  would  himself  cross-examine  the  parties  in  respect 
of  the  transaction.  If,  after  his  decision,  there  was  still 
resistance  on  the  part  of  one,  any  further  appeal  might 
be  at  the  cost,  or  if  not  the  whole  cost  then  the  part 
cost,  of  the  persisting  suitor:  the  distinction  made  being 
that  where  there  was  an  evident  breach  of  an  obvious 
law  the  cost  should  be  borne  by  the  recalcitrant  person, 
but  not  so  where  the  interpretation  of  the  law  in  the 
68 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

particular  case  might  fairly  be  considered  a  matter  of 
doubt. 

I  should  add  that  along  with  any  such  change  of  ad- 
ministration it  is  implied  that  there  should  be  such 
change  in  the  law  itself  as  to  make  it  comprehensible 
and  definite.  A  clearly  and  rationally  organised  body 
of  law,  comprehensible  by  the  ordinary  citizen,  would 
itself  exclude  the  greater  proportion  of  aggressions,  and 
when  breaches  of  laws,  clearly  understood,  were  in  some 
such  way  as  that  described  promptly  dealt  with,  without 
cost  to  the  injured  person,  there  would  be  very  few  such 
breaches. 

25  November. — Please  say  nothing  about  my  views  on 
the  administration  of  civil  justice. 


13  January,  1895. — Thanks  for  the  copy  of  your  new 
volume  [a  second  series  of  individualist  essays].  ...  I 
regret  that  you  have  used  the  word  "  anarchist  "  or 
' '  philosophical  anarchist. ' '  It  has  at  present,  and  quite 
naturally,  so  bad  an  odour  that  use  of  it  raises  a  pre- 
liminary prejudice  against  any  conclusions  which  ap- 
pear to  be  congruous  with  anarchist  doctrines.  You 
cannot  get  people  to  distinguish.  Moreover,  the  word 
seems  to  me  broader  than  is  appropriate  to  your  mean- 
ing, since  you  recognise  the  need  for  some  government. 

I  wish  you  would  deal  with  Mr.  Sidney  Webb.  I  see 
by  this  week's  Spectator,  which  partly  reprobates  and 
partly  commends  him,  that  he  has  in  the  Contemporary 
been  setting  forth  the  beneficial  achievements  of  the 
County  Council,  which  you  and  I  regard  as  mischievous 
rather  than  beneficial.  If  you  could  contribute  to  the 
Contemporary  an  article  showing  the  socialistic  character 
of  these  achievements,  and  pointing  out  that  the  Specta- 
tor and  others  who  approve  are  simply  furthering  the 
socialism  which  they  condemn  in  the  abstract,  you  would 
do  good  service. 

69 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

A  year  before  this,  on  the  occasion  of  the  bomb  out- 
rage by  Vaillant  in  Paris,  he  thanked  M.  Jean  Schmidt 
for  an  article  in  the  Figaro  representing  his  views  as 
being  "  of  the  absolutely  opposite  kind  "  to  anarchic. 

To  HENRY  CHARLTON  BASTIAN. 

MARGATE,  17  August,  1894. 

There  has  been  for  some  time  a  conspiracy  afoot 
among  retail  booksellers  and  publishers,  which  is  in- 
tended to  have  the  effect  of  abolishing  the  present  sys- 
tem of  making  discounts  of  2d.  and  3d.  in  the  shil- 
ling. .  .  . 

A  generation  ago  I  was  one  of  those  who  took  part  in 
the  agitation  which  abolished  the  then  existing  system 
of  retailer's  discounts  of  33  per  cent.,  which  were  main- 
tained by  allowing  no  retailer  to  make  an  abatement 
and  regarding  as  black  sheep  those  who  did,  and  pre- 
venting them  from  getting  books  if  possible. 

This  system  they  are  now  quietly  endeavouring  to  re- 
establish. I  want  to  get  full  particulars  of  the  proceed- 
ings before  taking  action. 

He  wished  Dr.  Bastian  to  ascertain  from  one  of  the 
large  retail  booksellers  how  the  new  system  of  marking 
books  as  "  net  "  affected  discount  booksellers.  "  Do 
not  mention  my  name.  If  I  take  public  action  in  the 
matter  it  will  be  anonymously,  for  I  do  not  want  to  set 
the  trade  against  me."  A  communication  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  "  From  a  Correspondent  "  appeared  on  24 
October.  In  this  letter  he  gave  an  account  of  the  nego- 
ciations  in  1852  which  ended  in  abolishing  the  coercive 
regulation  according  to  which  a  retail  bookseller  who 
sold  books  at  lower  rates  of  profit  than  those  prescribed 
was  prevented  from  obtaining  supplies  of  books. 
70 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

All  know  what  has  since  happened,  or  rather  all 
know  what  have  been  the  usages  for  the  last  generation, 
though  they  may  not  know  how  they  arose.  The  prac- 
tice of  allowing  a  discount  of  2d.  in  the  Is.  from  the 
advertised  price  of  a  book  was  quickly  established,  and 
after  a  time  the  discount  was  by  many,  and  eventually 
by  most,  retailers  increased  to  3d.  in  the  Is.,  or  25  per 
cent.  That  benefit  has  resulted  cannot  well  be  ques- 
tioned. .  .  .  Increased  sales  consequent  on  lower  prices 
have  thus  made  possible  much  of  the  best  literature 
which  would  else  have  been  impossible.  These  advan- 
tages are  now  being  furtively  destroyed.  Some  three 
years  ago,  in  certain  advertisements  of  books,  the  word 
"  net  "  was  inserted  after  the' price,  implying  that  no 
discount  would  be  allowed.  .  .  .  Already  coercive  meas- 
ures, like  those  which  a  generation  ago  maintained  this 
system,  are  growing  up.  Booksellers  who  have  allowed 
small  discounts  from  "  net  "  prices  have  received  warn- 
ings that,  if  they  do  so  again,  supplies  of  books  will  be 
denied  to  them.  .  .  .  Doubtless  we  shall  hear  a  defence 
of  these  resuscitated  regulations.  Some  will  say  that  re- 
tailers should  be  properly  paid  for  their  work,  and  that 
underselling  by  one  another  does  them  great  mischief. 
Others  will  say  that  publishers  benefit  by  giving  re- 
tailers a  sufficient  stimulus  to  push  their  books.  The 
authors,  too,  will  be  said  to  gain  by  the  increased  sales 
resulting.  It  will  even  possibly  be  urged  that  the  public 
are  benefited  by  having  books  brought  under  their  notice 
better  than  they  would  otherwise  be.  To  these  and  other 
pleas  there  is  a  brief,  but  sufficient,  reply.  They  were 
urged  a  generation  ago,  and  a  generation  ago  they  were 
examined  and  rejected.1 

Professor  Henry  Drummond  had  for  years  acknowl- 
edged himself  as  an  admiring  student  of  Spencer's  writ- 
ings. It  was  with  no  little  surprise,  therefore,  said 

1  Various  Fragments,  pp.  171-196. 

71 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Professor  Drummond's  biographer,  that  his  friends  read 
Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  article  in  the  Fortnightly  Review 
for  September,  1894,  in  which  she  "  made  a  furious  on- 
slaught on  what  she  alleged  to  be  Drummond's  '  pseudo- 
science  and  plagiarisms,'  overlooking,  as  her  critics 
pointed  out,  his  acknowledgments  of  indebtedness  to 
Herbert  Spencer  and  other  writers  on  the  very  points 
with  reference  to  which  she  made  her  serious  charges." 
The  prime  mover  of  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  article  was 
Spencer  himself.1 

To  MRS.  LYNN  LINTON. 

6  June,  1894. 

Professor  Drummond  ...  in  his  recently  published 
work,  The  Ascent  of  Man,  with  the  airs  of  a  discoverer 
and  with  a  tone  of  supreme  authority  sets  out  to  instruct 
me  and  other  evolutionists  respecting  the  factor  of  social 
evolution  which  we  have  ignored — altruism. 

...  I  do  not,  of  course,  like  to  undertake  it  [a  reply] 
myself,  but  I  should  be  very  glad  if  somebody  would 
undertake  it  for  me,  and  on  looking  round  for  a  proxy 
I  thought  of  you.  With  your  vigorous  style  and  pic- 
turesque way  of  presenting  things,  you  would  do  it  in 
an  interesting  and  effective  way,  at  the  same  time  that 
you  would  be  able  to  illustrate  and  enforce  the  doctrine 
itself. 

3  September. — When  I  returned  you  the  MS.  I 
thought  your  article  vigorous  and  effective,  and  now 
that  I  have  read  it  in  print  I  see  that  it  is  still  more 
vigorous  and  effective.  .  .  . 

The  fact  that  the  Standard  devotes  an  article  to  you 
is  sufficiently  significant,  and  I  join  in  the  applause 
given  by  the  writer  to  your  denunciation,  not  of  Pro- 

1  Life  of  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton,  pp.  310-12. 

72 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

fessor  Drummond  only,  but  of  the  public  taste  which 
swallows  with  greediness  these  semi-scientific  sentimen- 
talities. 

He  was  not  so  successful  in  inducing  any  of  his  scien- 
tific friends  to  reply  to  Lord  Salisbury's  address  as 
President  of  the  British  Association  at  Oxford. 

To  ALFRED  R.  WALLACE. 

10  August,  1894. 

If  we  differ  on  some  points  we  agree  on  many,  and 
one  of  the  points  on  which  we  doubtless  agree  is  the 
absurdity  of  Lord  Salisbury 's  representation  of  the  proc- 
ess of  Natural  Selection,  based  upon  the  improbability 
of  two  varying  individuals  meeting.  His  nonsensical 
representation  of  the  theory  ought  to  be  exposed,  for 
it  will  mislead  very  many  people.  I  see  it  is  adopted 
by  the  Pall  Mall. 

I  have  been  myself  strongly  prompted  to  take  the 
matter  up,  but  it  is  evidently  your  business  to  do  that. 
Pray  write  a  letter  to  the  Times  explaining  that  selec- 
tion, or  survival  of  the  fittest,  does  not  necessarily  take 
place  in  the  way  he  describes.  You  might  set  out  by 
showing  that  whereas  he  begins  by  comparing  himself 
to  a  volunteer  colonel  reviewing  a  regiment  of  regulars 
he  very  quickly  changes  his  attitude  and  becomes  a 
colonel  of  regulars  reviewing  volunteers,  making  fun  of 
their  bunglings.  He  deserves  a  severe  castigation. 
There  are  other  points  on  which  his  views  should  be 
rectified,  but  this  is  the  essential  point. 

To  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

LONDON,  1  October,  1894. 

Is  nobody  going  to  give  a  dressing  to  Lord  Salis- 
bury?    Sometime  ago  I  wrote  to  Wallace  wanting  him 
to  take  up  in  the  Times  the  question  of  Natural  Selec- 
tion in  respect  of  which  the  argument  used  is  so  absurd, 
73 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

but  Wallace  pleaded  that  he  was  busy  with  other  things. 
Your  mouth  is,  I  suppose,  closed  by  your  position  as 
seconder  of  the  vote  of  thanks  at  the  Association  meet- 
ing. 

The  theologically-minded  have  been  hurrahing  and 
throwing  up  their  caps,  and  it  is,  I  think,  needful  that 
they  should  be  sobered  a  little  by  being  shown  the 
fallacy,  and  indeed  the  folly,  of  his  lordship 's  criticisms. 
Old  and  feeble  as  I  am  I  feel  strongly  prompted  to  do 
it — the  more  so  as  there  are  various  things  of  importance 
to  be  said  incidentally. 

FROM  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

3  October,  1894. 

I  am  writing  something  for  the  half  jubilee  of  Nature 
in  November  next — in  which  I  think  I  shall  rub  in  Lord 
Salisbury 's  surrender  in  essentials  a  little  more  strongly 
than  I  could  do  at  Oxford;  but,  as  to  his  criticisms  of 
Natural  Selection  and  so  on,  I  really  doubt  if  they 
are  worth  powder  and  shot. 

But  if  you  think  otherwise  go  ahead  by  all  means — 
I  earned  the  prize  of  virtue  at  Oxford,  though  I  shall 
not  get  it.  You  may  imagine  how  tempting  it  was  to 
me  to  tear  the  thing  to  pieces.  But  that  was  hardly  the 
line  for  a  seconder,  and  I  restrained  myself  to  such 
damage  as  I  could  do,  by  warmly  praising  all  the  con- 
cessions which  that  dexterous  debater  had  left  in 
shadow.1 

Having  failed  to  get  any  one  to  write,  Spencer  would 
probably  have  allowed  the  matter  to  rest,  but  for  the 
circumstance  that  a  translation  of  the  address  had  been 
honoured  by  being  presented  to  the  French  Academy. 
Hence  his  article  on  "  Lord  Salisbury  on  Evolution." 
This  was  generally  regarded  in  France  as  victorious  on 

1  Life  of  Professor  Huxley,  ii.,  400-407. 

74 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

all  points,  so  M.  Leon  Say  told  Dr.  Gazelles  when  they 
met  at  the  funeral  of  M.  Floquet.  Thanks  to  the  inter- 
position of  M.  du  Mesnil  and  M.  Milne  Edwards,  it  was 
laid  on  the  table  of  the  Academic  des  Sciences  by 
Professor  Perrier. 

To  MRS.  TYNDALL. 

LONDON,  23  October,  1894. 

I  am  about  to  make  arrangements  for  going  again  to 
St.  Leonards,  ...  I  want  you  to  do  me  the  great  favour 
of  coming  to  stay  with  me  there  as  long  as  you  can.  I 
am  thinking  of  asking  as  one  to  visit  me  Miss  Cross,  sister 
of  Mr.  John  Cross  who  married  George  Eliot — a  very 
amiable  woman  and  intelligent,  who  wrote  one  charm- 
ing story  and  ought  to  write  others.  Then,  as  another 
guest,  I  shall  probably  have  Miss  Gingell,  a  Gloucester- 
shire lady,  who  compiled  a  volume  of  aphorisms  from  my 
writings,  when  unknown  to  me.  Another  I  may  prob- 
ably ask  is  Miss  Edith  Hughes,  daughter  of  an  enthusi- 
astic adherent  of  mine  in  Birmingham.  .  .  .  Last  winter 
one  of  the  two  ladies  who  formed  the  circle  was  Miss 
Charlotte  Shickle  .  .  .  who  did  the  housekeeping  for  me. 
She  is  a  good  soul — good  in  a  very  unusual  degree,  I 
never  met  any  one  who,  when  a  kind  thing  was  to  be 
done,  rushed  at  it  in  the  same  way. 

Soon  after  settling  at  St.  Leonards  he  gave  formal 
notice  determining  the  agreement  between  the  Misses 

and  himself;  the  reason  assigned  being  the  heavy 

expense  entailed  by  being  so  much  away  from  London. 
But  as  his  plans  were  not  yet  matured  he  thought  it 
might  be  convenient  for  both  parties  if  the  actual  ter- 
mination were  postponed,  subject  to  a  month's  notice. 
"  The  remembrance  of  times  spent  with  you  and  your 
sisters  during  1889,  '90,  '91,  and  '92  will  always  be 
pleasant  to  me."  His  plans  were  certainly  not  matured 
75 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HEEBEET  SPENCER 

at  the  date  of  giving  notice ;  for  it  was  not  till  1897  that 
the  Avenue  Eoad  establishment  was  broken  up. 

To  COUNT  GOBLET  D'ALVIELLA. 

7  January,  1895. 

Thanks  for  your  letter  and  for  the  accompanying  little 
volume  Vie  ei  CEuvre  de  Emile  de  Laveleye.  .  .  .  You 
comment  upon  the  conflict  between  the  opinions  of  M. 
de  Laveleye  and  my  own.  The  fact  was,  M.  de  Laveleye 
never  knew  what  my  views  were.  He,  in  common 
with  many  others,  laid  hold  of  some  one  portion 
and  formed  his  conclusions  from  it  without  due  recog- 
nition of  correlative  portions.  Because  I  hold  that  the 
struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
should  be  allowed  to  go  on  in  Society,  subject  to  those 
restraints  which  are  involved  by  preventing  each  man 
from  interfering  with  the  sphere  of  action  of  another, 
and  should  not  be  mitigated  by  governmental  agency,  he, 
along  with  many  others,  ran  away  with  the  notion  that 
[my  belief  was  that]  they  should  not  be  mitigated  at  all. 
...  I  regard  voluntary  beneficence  as  adequate  to 
achieve  all  those  mitigations  that  are  proper  and  need- 
ful. M.  de  Laveleye  did  not  see  that  that  which  he 
agreed  with  me  in  denouncing  and  fearing — the  univer- 
sal supremacy  of  the  State — is  the  outcome  of  that  pol- 
icy of  benevolent  interference  which  it  appears  he  ad- 
vocated. 

To  J.  A.  SKILTON. 

10  January,  1895. 

If,  as  it  would  seem,  you  think  that  I  have  got  a 
scheme  for  the  future  of  society  in  my  head  you  are  al- 
together mistaken.  Your  conception  of  applied  soci- 
ology— a  bringing  to  bear  of  evolutionary  principles  on 
social  organisation  with  a  view  to  its  improvement — is 
one  which  I  do  not  entertain.  The  sole  thing  about 
which  I  feel  confident  is  that  no  higher  types  of  social 
organisation  can  grow  until  international  antagonisms 
76 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

and,  consequently,  wars  cease.  .  .  .  You  have  faith  in 
teaching,  which  I  have  not — you  believe  men  are  going 
to  be  changed  in  their  conduct  by  being  shown  what  line 
of  conduct  is  rational.  I  believe  no  such  thing.  Men 
are  not  rational  beings,  as  commonly  supposed.  A  man 
is  a  bundle  of  instincts,  feelings,  sentiments,  which  sev- 
erally seek  their  gratification,  and  those  which  are  in 
power  get  hold  of  the  reason  and  use  it  to  their  own 
ends,  and  exclude  all  other  sentiments  and  feelings  from 
power.  .  .  .  There  is  no  hope  for  the  future  save  in  the 
slow  modification  of  human  nature  under  social  dis- 
cipline. Not  teaching,  but  action  is  the  requisite  cause. 
To  have  to  lead  generation  after  generation  a  life  that 
is  honest  and  sympathetic  is  the  one  indispensable  thing. 
No  adequate  change  of  character  can  be  produced  in  a 
year,  or  in  a  generation,  or  in  a  century.  All  which 
teaching  can  do — all  which  may,  perhaps,  be  done  by  a 
wider  diffusion  of  principles  of  sociology,  is  the  check- 
ing of  retrograde  action.  The  analogy  supplied  by  an 
individual  life  yields  the  true  conception.  You  cannot 
in  any  considerable  degree  change  the  course  of  individ- 
ual growth  and  organisation — in  any  considerable  de- 
gree antedate  the  stages  of  development.  But  you  can, 
in  considerable  degree,  by  knowledge  put  a  check  upon 
those  courses  of  conduct  which  lead  to  pathological  states 
and  accompanying  degradations. 

Any  one  who  wishes  to  aid  social  advance  should  de- 
vote all  his  energies  to  showing,  that  no  fundamental  and 
permanent  progress  in  social  life  can  be  made  while  war- 
like activities  and  the  social  organisation  appropriate 
to  them  continue. 

2  February. — A  true  theory  of  social  progress  is  not 
a  cause  of  movement  but  is  simply  oil  to  the  movement 
— serves  simply  to  remove  friction.  The  force  produc- 
ing the  movement  is  the  aggregate  of  men's  instincts 
and  sentiments,  and  these  are  not  to  be  changed  by  a 
theory. 

77 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

You  think  that  I  have  got  some  message  and  that  ut- 
terance of  it  might  stave  off  impending  evils.  I  have 
but  one  message — Be  honest :  regard  the  equitable  claims 
of  others  while  maintaining  your  own.  The  disregard 
of  all  save  personal  interests  is  the  underlying  cause  of 
your  present  state  and  of  impending  disasters.  As  I 
said  years  ago  a  propos  of  American  affairs,  a  fatal  trait 
in  your  society  is  the  admiration  of  "  smart  "  men,  and 
I  believe  I  said  or  implied  that  a  people  among  whom 
there  is  admiration  for  "  smart  "  men  will  come  to 
grief.  If  you  think  that  a  healthier  ideal  can  be  estab- 
lished in  American  society  by  teaching,  I  entirely  dis- 
agree. Under  your  present  condition  men  could  not  be 
got  to  listen.  Even  if  they  listened,  they  would  not  be 
convinced.  And  even  if  they  were  convinced,  their  con- 
duct would  not  be  appreciably  affected.  When  men  are 
under  the  influence  of  pronounced  feelings  no  amount  of 
reason  changes  their  behaviour. 

To  J.  W.  CROSS. 

18  January,  1895. 

While  she  was  with  me  your  sister  named  the  opinion 
you  had  expressed  that  a  crash  is  impending  in  the 
United  States — a  financial  crash,  I  gathered  from  her 
statement.  I  too  am  expecting  a  crash,  but  have  been 
rather  contemplating  a  social  than  a  financial  crash. 
Probably  either  will  be  a  factor  in  producing  the  other. 
That  a  dreadful  catastrophe  is  coming  I  do  not  feel  the 
slightest  doubt.  The  Americans  are  now  beginning  to 
reap  the  far-reaching  and  widely-diffused  consequences 
of  their  admiration  for  smart  prigs,  and  the  general 
mercantile  laxity. 

To  MRS.  TYNDALL. 

31  May,  1895. 

Fundamentally  regarded,  the  condition  of  things  is 
this.  Men  within  these  few  generations  have  become 

78 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

emancipated  from  the  restraints  which  a  strong  social 
organisation  had  over  them.  They  are  rapidly  proving 
themselves  unfit  for  the  condition  of  liberty,  and  they 
are  busy  unconsciously  organising  for  themselves  a  tyr- 
anny which  will  put  them  under  as  strong  a  restraint 
as,  or  a  stronger  restraint  than,  before. 

22  June. — We  are  coming  to  a  maladministration  of 
justice  like  that  in  Ireland. 

Having  been  informed  that  the  Italian  socialist,  Pro- 
fessor Ferri,  had  adduced  his  authority  in  support  of 
socialism,  he  wrote  (June  12,  1895)  an  indignant  pro- 
test, which  was  published  in  La  Riforma.  In  a  letter 
(19  June)  to  the  editor  of  La  Riforma,  Signor  Ferri 
pointed  out  that  Spencer  was  under  a  misapprehension. 

No  socialist  has  ever  dreamt  to  include  among  the  sup- 
porters of  Socialism  the  greatest  living  philosopher.  .  .  . 
But  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  personal 
opinions  of  H.  Spencer  and  the  logical  outcome  of  the 
positive  theory  of  universal  evolution,  which  he  has  de- 
veloped better  than  any  other  writer,  without  however 
obtaining  an  official  patent  against  the  unrestricted  ex- 
pansion which  is  daily  given  to  that  theory  by  the  work 
of  other  thinkers.  In  the  preface  to  my  book  I  stated 
that  Spencer  and  Darwin  had  stopped  midway,  and 
consequently  without  reaching  the  logical  consequences 
of  their  doctrine. 

A  copy  of  his  article  on  "  Mr.  Balfour's  Dialectics," 
published  in  the  June  number  of  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view,  was  put  aside  with  a  view  to  its  appearance  in  a 
permanent  form  in  the  next  edition  of  the  essays.  But 
in  a  note  written  on  this  copy  in  November,  1897,  he 
79 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

says  that  "  in  consequence  of  Mr.  Balfour's  noble  be- 
haviour in  actively  aiding  the  portrait  presentation 
scheme,  I  have  decided  that  I  cannot  with  good  taste 
republish  it." 

The  Order  "  Pour  le  Merite  "  was  offered  him,  but 
declined  in  a  communication  to  the  German  Ambassador 
(1  June,  1895). 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  presents  his  compliments  to  His 
Excellency  the  German  Ambassador,  and  begs  to  ac- 
knowledge the  receipt  of  his  letter  of  May  31,  notifying 
the  fact  that  the  German  Emperor  has  conferred  on  Mr. 
Spencer  the  Royal  Order  "  Pour  le  Merite  "  for  arts 
and  sciences.  Naturally  the  fact  cannot  but  be  a  source 
of  satisfaction  to  him. 

On  various  occasions  during  the  last  five  and  twenty 
years  Mr.  Spencer  has  declined  the  honours  that  have 
been  conferred  on  him;  and  to  accept  the  honour  now 
conferred  would  not  only  be  inconsistent  with  his  con- 
victions, but  would  imply  a  slight  upon  the  learned 
bodies  whose  honours  he  has  on  past  occasions  declined. 
Though  the  fountain  of  honour  is  not  in  this  case  of  the 
same  nature  as  in  previous  cases,  yet  the  reasons  which 
prompted  his  course  remain  the  same.  What  those  rea- 
sons are  may  be  seen  from  certain  passages  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  French  Academy  in  May,  1883,  after 
Mr.  Spencer  had  been  elected  a  Foreign  Associate  of 
that  body.  .  .  .l 

Mr.  Spencer,  without  undervaluing  the  distinction  of 
inclusion  in  the  Royal  Order  "  Pour  le  Merite,"  feels 
compelled  to  pursue  the  course  he  has  hitherto  pursued 
and,  therefore,  to  decline  the  accorded  honour. 

About  a  week  later  he  was  informed  by  Professor 
Theodor  Gomperz  of  Vienna  that  the  Imperial  Vienna 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xvii.,  p.  310. 
80 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

Academy  had  elected  him  a  foreign  honorary  member. 
Having  seen  in  the  papers  that  Spencer  had  been  de- 
clining as  a  matter  of  principle  all  honours,  Professor 
Gomperz,  who  had  taken  the  initiative  in  the  election, 
hoped  that  the  rumour  was  untrue. 

But  if  it  should  be  true  (he  wrote),  I  must  request 
you,  kindly  to  write  a  line  as  soon  as  you  find  time  for 
it.  For  our  act  of  election  is  only  a  preliminary;  the 
nomination  belongs  to  the  prerogative  of  His  Majesty  the 
Emperor.  And  if  you  should  be  firmly  resolved  to  re- 
fuse such  a  nomination,  our  election  would  (I  suppose) 
not  be  submitted  for  sanction  to  His  Majesty.  You 
would  then  be  spared  the  unwelcome  necessity  of  meet- 
ing an  act  of  respectful  sympathy  by  a  flat  refusal,  and 
we  would  be  spared  the  still  more  unpleasant  necessity  of 
exposing  our  sovereign  to  such  a  refusal. 

Spencer  was  sorry  to  be  unable  to  contradict  the  ru- 
mour as  to  his  attitude  towards  honours,  the  reasons 
given  being  those  with  which  the  reader  is  now  familiar. 
A  similar  course  was  followed  when  he  was  offered  the 
membership  of  the  Royal  Lombardian  Institute  of 
Sciences  and  Letters,  and  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  the 
University  of  Buda  Pesth. 

FROM  MRS.  TYNDALL. 

5  June,  1895. 

Talking  of  your  early  life  reminds  me  that  I  met  yes- 
terday a  Miss ,  who  mentioned  that  she  had  heard 

her  father  tell  of  a  time  in  your  engineering  days  when 
you  were  in  the  habit  of  eating  tallow  candles,  the  in- 
ference being  drawn  that  your  brain  thereby  became 
specially  nourished.  How  such  a  ridiculous  story  came 
to  be  invented  I  do  not  know. 
81 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  MRS.  TYNDALL. 

6  June,  1895. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  the  amazing  story  you  send 
me.  I  could  fill  a  small  volume  with  absurd  stories 
about  myself,  of  some  of  which  I  can  trace  the  origin, 
but  others  without  any  imaginable  origin.  This  most 
absurd  one  which  you  send  is  one  of  the  last  class.  It 
is  the  more  remarkable  as  coming  from  one  who  might 
reasonably  be  supposed  to  know. 

In  place  of  Pewsey  the  summer  resort  for  1895  was 
Westerham,  Kent,  whither  he  went  about  the  middle  of 
June.  He  had  not  been  there  many  days  when  a  severe 
blow  fell  upon  him  by  the  death  of  Professor  Huxley. 

To  MRS.  HUXLEY. 

WESTERHAM,  2  July,  1895. 

If  recovery  had  become  hopeless,  longer  continuance 
of  life  under  such  suffering  as  has  of  late  been  borne 
was  scarcely  to  be  desired,  and  this  thought  may  be  en- 
tertained as  in  part  a  consolation  hi  your  bereavement. 
A  further  consolation,  and  one  which  will  be  of  long 
duration,  is  derivable  from  the  contemplation  of  his  life 
as  having  been  model — exemplary  in  the  capacities  of 
husband,  father,  citizen  and  teacher. 

The  death  of  Lord  Pembroke,  whose  character  and 
aims  he  estimated  very  highly,  removed  one  more  from 
the  ever  narrowing  circle  of  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances. Hitherto  Lady  Pembroke's  correspondence  with 
Spencer  had  for  the  most  part  related  to  political  or 
scientific  questions  of  general  interest;  but  after  Lord 
Pembroke 's  death  her  letters  took  an  entirely  new  turn : 
the  nature  of  life  and  mind,  the  unimportance  of  matter, 
telepathy,  a  future  existence,  being  among  the  subjects 
dilated  upon.  Occasionally,  in  discussing  these  subjects, 
82 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

she  felt  she  was  getting  beyond  her  depth,  as  when  she 
said :  "  I  trust  I  am  not  writing  presumptuous  nonsense 
to  the  greatest  philosopher  of  the  day." 

To  THE  COUNTESS  OP  PEMBROKE. 

26  June,  1895. 

On  the  great  questions  you  raise  I  should  like  to  com- 
ment at  some  length  had  I  the  energy  to  spare.  The 
hope  that  continually  groping,  though  in  the  dark,  may 
eventually  discover  the  clue,  is  one  I  can  scarcely  enter- 
tain, for  the  reason  that  human  intelligence  appears  to 
me  incapable  of  framing  any  conception  of  the  required 
kind.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  our  best  course  is  to  sub- 
mit to  the  limitations  imposed  by  the  nature  of  our 
minds,  and  to  live  as  contentedly  as  we  may  in  ignorance 
of  that  which  lies  behind  things  as  we  know  them.  My 
own  feeling  respecting  the  ultimate  mystery  is  such  that 
of  late  years  I  cannot  even  try  to  think  of  infinite  space 
without  some  feeling  of  terror,  so  that  I  habitually  shun 
the  thought. 

5  July. — The  general  question  is  too  wide  for  discus- 
sion in  a  letter,  but  I  may  suggest  the  consideration  of  a 
fact  which  perhaps  will  throw  doubt  upon  your  assump- 
tion that  life  is  a  thing  instead  of  being  a  process.  It 
is  well  known  among  naturalists  that  certain  minute 
forms  of  aquatic  life,  as,  for  example,  the  Rotifers,  may 
be  dried  up  until  they  resemble  particles  of  dust,  and 
that,  though  then  dead  in  so  far  as  absence  of  all  vital 
manifestations  is  concerned,  they,  when  duly  supplied 
again  with  water,  perhaps  after  years,  absorb  it,  and 
recommence  their  lives.  If  we  understand  life  to  be  a 
process  this  is  comprehensible,  but  if  we  understand  life 
to  be  a  thing  it  is  not  comprehensible. 

However,  without  pushing  the  argument  further  I 
may  end  up  by  saying  that  the  whole  thing  is  at  bottom 
an  insoluble  mystery,  and  I  quite  understand  your  atti- 
83 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

tude  in  entertaining  what  Tennyson  calls  the  "  Larger 
hope. ' ' 

5  November. — Respecting  your  question  concerning 
"  conjectures,"  I  have  ceased  to  form  any,  since  the 
more  the  mystery  of  things  is  thought  about  the  more 
mysterious  it  becomes.  As  I  said  at  the  close  of  an  essay 
written  many  years  ago, ' '  the  Ultimate  Power  is  no  more 
representable  in  terms  of  human  consciousness  than 
human  consciousness  is  representable  in  terms  of  a 
plant's  functions."  And,  of  course,  what  is  here  said 
respecting  the  Ultimate  Power  holds  equally  respecting 
the  Ultimate  Process. 

The  simple  fact,  that  the  endeavour  to  answer  the 
question  whether  space  is  infinite  or  not  infinite  leads 
us  to  alternative  impossibilities  of  thought,  suffices  to 
show  that  no  conjectures  we  can  frame  with  regard  to 
the  reality  of  things  can  have  any  approach  to  the  truth. 

19  January,  1896. — I  remember  hearing  Professor 
Owen  say  that  it  is  given  only  to  the  man  of  science  to 
know  what  a  fact  is,  and  my  own  experience  endorses 
the  saying.  The  mass  of  mankind  are  so  uncritical  that 
they  do  not  distinguish  between  valid  and  invalid  evi- 
dences. When  in  past  years  I  looked  into  alleged  non- 
natural  phenomena  I  found  the  ideas  of  what  constitutes 
proof  so  loose  that  I  ceased  to  pay  any  attention  to  the 
matter.  .  .  . 

A  special  combination  of  qualities  is  required  for  an 
examiner  in  such  cases:  he  must  have  both  scientific 
knowledge  and  definite  ideas  of  causation,  and  also  a 
knowledge  of  human  nature  and  a  quick  perception  of 
human  motives  and  conduct.  Most  are  deficient  in  one 
or  other  qualification.  Being  myself  deficient  in  the 
last,  I  would  not  trust  my  own  conclusions  were  I  to 
take  part  in  a  seance  or  in  kindred  testing  of  alleged 
abnormal  manifestations.  I  am  so  wanting  in  quick  ob- 
servation of  people's  doings,  feelings,  intentions,  etc., 
84 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

that  I  should  be  easily  deluded.  But  my  own  experience 
is  that  remarkable  coincidences  occur  with  such  compar- 
ative frequency  as  to  be  quite  capable  of  accounting  for 
the  occasional  instances  of  things  apparently  super- 
natural. I  have  myself  sometimes  had  promptings  to 
believe  in  a  supernatural  agency,  caused  by  the  repeated 
experiences  of  coincidences  in  various  ways  injurious. 
.  .  .  And  simple  induction  would  I  think  almost  have 
led  me  to  believe  in  supernatural  agency  were  it  not 
that  with  me  the  conviction  of  natural  causation  is  so 
strong  that  it  is  impossible  to  think  away  from  it. 

But  I  should  have  been  more  apt  to  accept  a  super- 
natural explanation  had  it  not  been  for  the  many  ex- 
periences I  have  had  of  meaningless  coincidences,  show- 
ing how  frequent  and  how  astonishing  they  are.  ...  If 
meaningless  coincidences  are  thus  frequent,  there  must 
occasionally  occur  coincidences  that  have  meaning — co- 
incidences of  which  the  elements  are  related  in  some 
significant  way,  and  when  they  do  occur  they  attract 
attention  from  their  resemblance  and  suggest  a  super- 
natural cause.  It  is  this  consideration  which  has  joined 
in  making  me  reject  the  supernatural  interpretation 
above  referred  to. 

21  January. — If  I  find  myself  obliged  to  hold  that 
there  are  supernatural  manifestations  and  a  supernatural 
interference  with  the  order  of  things,  then  my  personal 
experience  would  force  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
power  underlying  things  is  diabolical. 

Were  I  well  enough,  ...  I  should  be  pleased  were 
you  to  honour  me  with  a  call  on  your  way  to  Eastbourne, 
but  unhappily  listening  tries  me  nearly  as  much  as  talk- 
ing. ...  I  may  however  be  considerably  better  by  the 
time  referred  to  and  in  that  case  should  gladly  listen  to 
the  experiences  you  name. 

This  closes  the  correspondence  so  far  as  regards  the 
supreme  question  discussed,  with  exception  of  a  letter 
85 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

from  Lady  Pembroke  in  May,  in  which  she  says  (prob- 
ably with  reference  to  the  visit  above  referred  to) : 
"  After  our  last  conversation  I  think  you  will  believe 
that  I  have  fallen  away  from  the  school  of  precise 
thinking." 

While  these  lines  are  being  written,  the  death  of  Lady 
Pembroke  on  August  31,  1906,  is  announced.  Another 
of  Spencer's  friends — the  Dowager  Countess  of  Ports- 
mouth— died  on  the  same  day.  Lady  Portsmouth  had 
for  years  been  unwearied  in  her  kindnesses  and  unwaver- 
ing in  her  admiration  of  his  character.  When  sending 
him  a  copy  of  the  reprinted  essays,  etc.,  of  her  brother, 
the  late  Earl  of  Carnarvon,  she  wrote:  "  It  is  possible 
you  differed  on  some  subjects.  It  is  possible  you  agreed 
on  many.  It  is  quite  certain  that  you  stood  together 
in  a  noble  love  of  justice  and  truth." 

In  July,  1895,  a  proposal  that  he  should  sit  for  his 
portrait  to  Mr.  McLure  Hamilton  was  declined  for  the 
reasons  given  some  seven  years  before  when  he  was  asked 
to  sit  to  Millais.1  Later  in  the  year,  in  connexion  with 
Mr.  Watts'  gift  to  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  a  sug- 
gestion was  made  by  Mr.  Collins  in  the  Times  (Decem- 
ber 11)  to  have  a  portrait  painted  by  Watts  and  added 
to  the  national  collection. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

12  December,  1895. 

I  was  startled  by  your  letter  in  yesterday's  Times. 
...  It  is  vigorously  written,  and  its  point  artistically 
brought  out.  It  will  greatly  astonish  most  people  by 
the  claim  it  makes,  which,  I  doubt  not,  they  will  think 
absurd. 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xix.,  p.  378. 
86 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

I  fear,  however,  that  in  respect  of  the  result  desired 
it  is  unlikely  to  succeed.  Probably  this  gift  made  by 
Mr.  Watts,  if  it  does  not  mark  the  end  of  his  career  as 
an  artist,  marks  the  end  of  his  career  as  a  portrait- 
painter,  and  I  should  think  that  at  his  age  he  will  prob- 
ably object  to  undertake  anything  more. 

A  notice  was  also  sent  by  Spencer  to  the  Times  (De- 
cember 14)  to  the  effect  that  the  letter  "  was  written  and 
published  entirely  without  his  knowledge,  and  that  he 
must  not  in  any  way  be  held  responsible  for  the  sugges- 
tion contained  in  it."  On  the  17th  he  informed  Mr. 
Collins:  "  Please  take  no  further  step  in  the  matter  of 
the  portrait.  I  am  no  admirer  of  Watts  and  should 
have  no  desire  to  sit  to  him,  even  if  he  assented.  As  to 
any  other  plan  that  may  be  proposed,  I  know  of  none 
to  which  I  should  not  raise  objection."  Mr.  Watts  was 
far  from  assenting.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Collins  he  ex- 
pressed his  feeling  that  any  attempt  he  might  make 
would  be  likely  to  end  in  failure. 

A  request  from  Mr.  A.  Mordan,  of  Reigate,  that  he 
would  sit  to  Mr.  Wells  for  a  portrait  to  be  presented  to 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery  was  also  declined. 

While  at  Westerham  he  sent  a  letter  to  Nature  on 
"  The  Nomenclature  of  Colours,"  quoting  a  passage 
from  the  unpublished  Autobiography  (i.  355). 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

4  September,  1895. 

My  objection  to  your  proposed  chart  of  colours  is 
that,  in  the  first  place,  it  does  not  make  the  composition 
of  each  colour  obvious,  which  is  a  primary  desideratum, 
and  in  the  second  place,  that  it  does  not  give  in  juxtapo- 
sition with  each  colour  its  assigned  name.  Hence  the 
memory  is  not  in  either  way  aided  to  the  same  extent, 
87 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

and  further  there  is  no  such  advantage  as  that  given 
by  the  method  of  "  boxing  the  compass  "  of  colours, 
namely,  that  the  mode  of  naming  each  colour  and  its 
relative  position  can  be  easily  recalled  when  it  has  been 
forgotten,  since  the  method  of  naming  is  easily  re- 
covered. 

Reference  to  the  above  led  him  to  bring  to  light  a 
"  Classification  of  Artistic  Characters  of  Paintings," 
which  he  had  drawn  up  probably  during  or  about  the 
time  of  his  visit  to  Italy  in  1868,  and  of  which  he  says : 
"  These  were  drawn  up  at  a  time  when  I  hoped  I  should 
one  day  deal  with  Esthetic  Progress,  and  my  intention 
was  to  go  through  Home  and  Foreign  Picture  Galleries 
to  classify  pictures  in  respect  of  these  traits."  The 
classification  embraced  four  heads: — Subject,  Form, 
Colour,  Shade.1 

His  loyalty  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Youmans  was  shown 
by  his  letter  to  the  Times  in  September,  pointing  out 
how  unceasing  had  been  his  friend 's  efforts  in  the  United 
States  to  uphold  the  interests  of  authors.  The  strength 
of  this  feeling  was  shown  some  two  months  later  when 
invited  by  the  London  editor  of  McClure's  Magazine  to 
contribute  to  that  journal. 

1  R — religious  C.P. — colour  primary 

RW — religious  worship  C.Pu — colour  pure 

M — mythology  C.St — colour  strong 

L — loyal  C.S. — colour  secondary 

P — political  C.T — colour  tertiary 

C.M — colour  mixed 
C.Im — colour  impure 

S — symmetrical  N.S — no    shade 

US — unsymmetrical  H.S — half  shade 

A.S — attitudes  symmetrical  F.S — full  shade 

A.US — attitudes  unsymmetrical  S.S — strong  shade 

A.A — attitudes  alike  S.U — shading  uniform 

A.D — attitudes  distorted  S.C — shading  contrasted 

88 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

I  have,  in  virtue  mainly  of  my  indebtedness  to  my  old 
friend  for  all  he  did  on  my  behalf  in  the  United  States, 
felt  bound  to  make  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  my 
sole  medium  for  publication  of  articles  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  obligation,  which  was  peremptory  during 
his  life,  remains  strong  after  his  death,  since  his  brother 
occupies  his  place  and  has  continued  his  good  offices  on 
my  behalf. 


Copyright  between  the  mother  country  and  Canada 
iad,  about  this  time,  assumed  an  acute  form,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Dominion  Parliament  requiring  that  to 
secure  copyright  a  book  must  have  been  printed  in  Can- 
ada. Professor  Goldwin  Smith  contended  for  the  exci- 
sion of  this  clause.  In  favour  of  its  retention  Sir 
Charles  Tupper  quoted  a  document  signed  many  years 
before  by  fifty  British  Authors,  of  whom  Spencer  was 
one.  Thereupon  Spencer  wrote  to  the  Times  (22  Octo- 
ber) explaining  the  general  purport  of  that  memorial 
(which  he  had  himself  drawn  up),  pointing  out  that  the 
inferences  Sir  Charles  Tupper  had  drawn  from  it  were 
not  warrantable,  and  quoting  Professor  Goldwin  Smith's 
opinion  that  the  clause  requiring  a  book  to  be  printed 
in  Canada  must  be  "  excised."  This  word  "  excised  " 
appeared  in  the  cablegram  to  Canada  as  "  exercised." 
Professor  Goldwin  Smith  naturally  protested  against 
this  inversion  of  his  meaning,  which  to  Spencer  looked 
like  a  deliberate  falsification  in  Canadian  interests.  By 
way  of  counteracting  any  such  purpose,  assuming  it  to 
exist,  he  wrote  to  the  Colonial  Secretary.  While  not 
doubting  that  the  Canadians  had  a  keen  eye  to  their 
own  interests,  Mr.  Chamberlain  did  not  think  they  dif- 
fered from  other  people.  Mr.  Hall  Caine  had,  he  hoped, 
89 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

helped  to  make  an  arrangement  possible  which  would  be 
satisfactory  to  English  authors. 

Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  he  had  to  defend 
his  independence  of  Comte. 

To  LESTER  F.  WARD. 

19  September,  1895. 

I  have  just  received  a  copy  of  your  essay  on  "  The 
Place  of  Sociology  among  the  Sciences, ' '  and  on  glancing 
through  it  am  startled  by  some  of  its  statements. 

(1)  You  have  not,  I  presume,  read  my  essay  on  "  The 
Genesis  of  Science,"  otherwise  you  would  scarcely  say 
that  Comte 's  classification  represents  the  genetic  or  serial 
order  of  the  sciences.  .  .  . 

(2)  But  I  am  much  more  amazed  by  your  statement 
respecting  Comte 's  system  that  "  Spencer  himself,  not- 
withstanding  all  his  efforts  to  overthrow   it,   actually 
adopted  it  in  the  arrangement  of  the  sciences  in  his 
Synthetic  Philosophy."    Now  in  the  first  place,  if  you 
will  look  at  my  essay  on  "  The  Genesis  of  Science,"  you 
will  see  that  the  first  two  great  groups  of  sciences — the 
Abstract,    containing   logic   and   mathematics,   the   Ab- 
stract-Concrete,    containing    mechanics,     physics,     and 
chemistry — have  no   place   whatever   in  the   Synthetic 
Philosophy.  .  .  . 

Setting  aside  the  fact  that,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  the 
sciences  which  deal  with  the  forms  of  phenomena  and 
those  which  deal  with  their  factors  make  no  appearance 
whatever  in  the  order  of  sciences  forming  the  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  there  is  the  fact  that  even  if  the  sciences  as 
involved  in  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  are  compared  with 
the  system  of  Comte,  they  are  shown  to  be  wholly  in- 
congruous with  it.  If  you  will  turn  to  the  original 
preface  of  First  Principles,  in  which  an  outline  of  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy  is  set  forth,  you  will  see  there,  be- 
tween the  programme  of  First  Principles  and  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  Biology  a  note  in  italics  pointing  out 
90 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

that  in  logical  order  there  should  come  an  application 
of  First  Principles  to  inorganic  nature,  and  that  the 
part  of  it  dealing  with  inorganic  nature  is  omitted  sim- 
ply because  the  scheme,  even  as  it  stood,  was  too  exten- 
sive. Two  volumes  were  thus  omitted — a  volume  on 
astronomy  and  a  volume  on  geology.  Had  it  been  pos- 
sible to  write  these,  in  addition  to  those  undertaken,  the 
series  would  have  run — astronomy,  geology,  biology,  psy- 
chology, sociology,  ethics.  Now  in  this  series  those 
marked  in  italics  do  not  appear  in  the  Comtian  classifi- 
cation at  all. 

(3)  But  now,  in  the  third  place,  I  draw  your  atten- 
tion to  Table  III.  in  my  "  Classification  of  the  Sciences." 
There  you  will  see  that  the  order  of  the  works  already 
existing  in  the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  and  still  better  the 
order  in  which  they  would  have  stood  had  the  thing  been 
complete,  corresponds  exactly  with  the  order  shown  in 
that  table,  and  is  an  order  which  evolves  necessarily  from 
the  mode  of  organisation  there  insisted  upon,  and  cor- 
responds also  to  the  order  of  appearance  in  time,  if  you 
set  out  with  nebular  condensation  and  end  with  social 
phenomena.  The  order  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
does  not  correspond  with  that  of  Comte,  and  it  does  cor- 
respond with  the  order  shown  in  my  own  "  Classification 
of  the  Sciences." 


On  the  appearance  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  for  No- 
vember of  Mr.  Grant  Allen's  "  Character  Sketch," 
Spencer  was  again  impressed  with  the  weight  of  his 
obligations  to  that  singularly  able  and  generous  cham- 
pion. 

To  GRANT  ALLEN. 

18  November,  1895. 

You  have,  as  always  before,  proved  yourself  a  most 
outspoken  and  efficient  advocate — perhaps,  in  a  sense, 
91 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

almost  too  efficient,  since  in  some  minds  the  large  claims 
you  make  on  my  behalf  may  cause  some  reactive  feeling. 
I  say  this  partly  because,  even  in  myself,  the  reading 
of  your  exposition  last  night  at  the  Athenasum  oddly 
enough  seemed  to  produce  a  kind  of  vague  scepticism, 
as  though  it  could  hardly  all  be  true.  So  you  may  judge 
how  largely  you  have  made  me  loom  in  the  eyes  of  the 
general  reader. 

It  strikes  me  that  in  one  respect  you  have  been  credit- 
ing me  at  your  own  cost,  for  in  the  passage  concerning 
the  relation  between  growth  and  reproduction  I  recognise 
less  of  my  own  views  than  of  the  views  you  lately  set 
forth,  in  which  there  was  very  truly  expressed  the  truth 
that  the  ultimate  mystery  centres  more  in  the  ability 
of  the  individual  organism  to  perpetually  reproduce  its 
own  structure  than  in  its  ability  to  reproduce  like  struc- 
tures. 


The  earliest  of  all  his  friends — Mr.  George  Holme — 
passed  away  in  the  beginning  of  1896. 

To  CHARLES  HOLME. 

8  February,  1896. 

The  last  days  of  a  long  life  when  it  has  passed  into 
decrepitude  with  all  its  miseries  are  not  to  be  desired, 
and  when  there  has  been  reached  that  limit  after  which 
nothing  can  be  done  and  little  save  pain  can  be  expe- 
rienced, the  cessation  of  life  is  scarcely  to  be  regretted. 
You  and  your  mother  and  sisters  have  this  thought  as 
a  set-off  against  the  feeling  which  must  result  from  the 
breaking  of  the  last  link  with  your  father. 

You  have,  too,  the  permanent  consolation  of  remem- 
bering that  he  led  what  may  be  characterised  as  a  model 
life.  .  .  .  With  energy  and  great  natural  intelligence 
he  joined,  in  a  degree  far  beyond  that  which  is  usual, 
the  root  of  all  high  character — sympathy.  ...  It  was 
92 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

to  the  existence  in  him  of  this  predominant  sympathy 
that  I  owe  my  life. 

To  HECTOR  MACPHERSON. 

20  February,  1896. 

On  returning  from  Brighton  last  night,  after  an  ab- 
sence of  three  months,  I  found  your  little  book  on 
Carlyle.  ...  I  see  that  it  is  written  in  a  manner  which 
might  well  be  imitated  by  biographers — not  with  un- 
qualified eulogy,  but  with  qualified  eulogy.  It  is  curious 
that  to  one  sympathising  with  me  as  you  do  should  have 
fallen  the  task  of  writing  the  life  of  one  so  utterly  an- 
tagonistic— so  antagonistic  that  on  one  occasion  I  saw 
that  he  called  me  an  "  immeasurable  ass." 

28  February. — I  have  read  the  greater  part  of  your 
little  book  on  Carlyle  with  interest.  It  is  a  very  good 
combination  of  narrative,  exposition,  characterisation, 
and  criticism,  and  this  union  of  elements  gives  in  brief 
space  a  definite  idea  of  the  man. 

You  have  been  quite  fair  to  him — more  than  fair,  I 
think.  You  have  not  brought  into  prominence  his  less 
amiable  traits.  His  extreme  arrogance  should,  I  think, 
have  been  more  distinctly  indicated,  and  also  the  fact 
that  his  sympathy  with  despotic  modes  of  dealing  with 
men  was  the  outcome  of  his  own  despotic  nature. 

20  March. — Thank  you  for  your  proposal  [to  write 
a  book  on  Spencer].  I  should  of  course  very  well  like 
to  see  such  a  book  written,  and  have  no  doubt  that  you 
would  do  it  well. 

I  think,  however,  that  in  inferring  from  the  success 
of  your  little  book  on  Carlyle  that  a  book  of  the  kind 
you  name  would  succeed,  you  are  over  sanguine.  Biog- 
raphy and  philosophy  in  respect  of  popular  appreciation 
stand  at  the  opposite  poles.  To  the  average  mind  the 
one  yields  much  pleasure  with  no  effort,  the  other  yields 
no  pleasure  with  much  effort. 
93 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Spencer's  dissatisfaction  with  the  decimal  system  was 
of  long  standing.1  But  occasion  did  not  arise  for  tak- 
ing the  question  up  till  January,  1895,  when  he  wrote 
a  long  letter  to  Lord  Kelvin,  who  had  made  a  public 
pronouncement  in  favour  of  the  metric  system.  After 
an  interval  of  a  little  over  a  year  he  wrote  four  letters 
against  the  metric  system,  which  appeared  in  the  Times 
(4,  7,  9,  25  April,  1896)  and  were  afterwards  sent  in 
pamphlet  form  to  members  of  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons and  of  the  United  States  Congress. 

FROM  Miss  YOUMANS. 

MOUNT  VERNON,  20  February,  1896. 

You  are  nearing  the  end  of  your  peerless  labour. 
What  superhuman  courage  and  persistence  you  have 
shown !  You  ought  to  be  very  proud  of  yourself.  If  Ed- 
ward could  only  be  here  in  this  hour  of  fulfilment !  .  .  . 
How  well  I  recall  his  tender  solicitude  about  you,  when 
in  1865  there  was  fear  that  you  would  not  be  able  to  go 
on  with  your  undertaking.  To  some  question  of  mine 
as  to  how  you  would  bear  it  he  answered  "  I  think  it 
would  kill  him. ' '  But  no  one  except  your  parents  could 
have  been  more  interested  in  your  success  than  Edward 
was.  And  sad  to  say,  at  his  death  your  prospects  in 
this  regard  were  at  the  worst. 

I  send  you  some  newspaper  slips  about  the  movement 
here  toward  arbitration.  .  .  .  May  I  publish  what  you 
wrote  to  Edward  when  you  were  trying  to  start  the 
Anti- Aggression  League? 

The  reply  must  have  been  in  the  affirmative,  for  in 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  of  26  March,  the  corre- 
spondence was  published,  along  with  a  brief  sketch  of  the 

1  Autobiography,  i.,  p.  248,  and  Appendix  E.,  p.  621. 

94 


COMPLETING  THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

origin  and  work  of  the  Anti-Aggression  League,  and 
concluding  with  Spencer's  letter  read  at  the  meeting  in 
favour  of  Anglo-American  Arbitration,  held  in  the 
Queen's  Hall,  3  March,  1896.1 

At  length  the  end  of  the  long  path  he  had  marked 
out  for  himself  to  travel  was  reached.2  The  occasion 
is  thus  described  by  his  Secretary,  Mr.  Troughton: — 

Mr.  Spencer  was  seventy -six  years  of  age  when  he  dic- 
tated to  me  the  last  words  of  "  Industrial  Institutions," 
with  the  completion  of  which  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
was  finished — to  be  precise  it  was  on  the  13  August, 
1896.  Rising  slowly  from  his  seat  in  the  study  at  64, 
Avenue  Koad,  his  face  beaming  with  joy,  he  extended 
his  hand  across  the  table,  and  we  shook  hands  on  the 
auspicious  event.  ' '  I  have  finished  the  task  I  have  lived 
for  "  was  all  he  said,  and  then  resumed  his  seat.  The 
elation  was  only  momentary  and  his  features  quickly 
resumed  their  customary  composure. 

1  Times,  Daily  Chronicle,  etc.,  of  4  March,  1896.    Also  Various 
Fragments,  p.  140. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  ix.,  p.  130. 


95 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

CONGRATULATIONS 

(November,  1896— -January,  1901) 

THE  publication  of  the  concluding  volume  of  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy  was  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of 
sympathetic  appreciation  such  as  falls  to  the  lot  of 
few  men.  Not  from  his  own  country  alone,  but  from 
many  lands;  not  from  adherents  only,  but  from  those 
who  did  not  accept  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  came  ex- 
pressions of  the  highest  admiration.  It  was  not  to  his 
transcendent  intellectual  power  merely  that  homage  was 
paid.  To  his  moral  character — to  the  high  and  indomi- 
table purpose  that  had  sustained  him  throughout  these 
years,  enabling  him,  in  face  of  difficulties  that  seemed 
almost  insurmountable,  ever  to  keep  sight  of  the  goal — 
to  this  was  offered  a  tribute  as  unstinted  in  its  cordiality 
as  it  was  catholic  in  its  source.  Generous  testimony  was 
borne  to  the  value  of  his  contribution  to  the  treasure 
house  of  thought,  but  even  more  generous  was  the  meed 
of  praise  called  forth  by  what  he  had  done  to  purify  the 
aims  and  strengthen  the  moral  fibre  of  mankind. 

Gratified  though  he  was  by  these  tributes  of  esteem, 
he  shrank  from  anything  that  might  have  the  appearance 
of  a  bid  for  notoriety.  He  would  not  allow  himself  to 
be  interviewed.  To  the  editor  of  one  of  the  London 
papers  he  wrote:  "I  am  at  present  quite  sufficiently 
affiche,  and  to  take  any  steps  which  would  have  the 
96 


CONGRATULATIONS 

appearance  of  intentionally  making  myself  more  con- 
spicuous would  be  repugnant  to  me.  Especially,  talk 
concerning  myself  and  my  work,  which  I  should  hesitate 
at  all  times  to  enter  upon,  would  at  the  present  time  be 
undesirable."  Again,  when  Mr.  Balfour  and  Mr.  Mor- 
ley  visited  him  together  early  in  December,  though  he 
made  no  attempt  to  conceal  the  pleasure  the  visit  had 
given  him,  he  requested  the  members  of  his  household 
not  to  speak  about  it,  because  he  did  not  wish  it  to  get 
into  the  papers. 

Not  disheartened  by  the  failure  of  his  suggestion  some 
months  before  to  get  a  portrait  of  Spencer  for  the  Na- 
tional Gallery,  Mr.  Collins  renewed  it  in  a  letter  to  the 
Times  of  17  November,  with  the  result  that  a  committee 
was  at  once  formed  consisting  of  Sir  Joseph  D.  Hooker 
(Chairman),  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  Mr.  Arthur  James 
Balfour,  Dr.  Charlton  Bastian,  Mr.  Leonard  Courtney, 
Mr.  Francis  Galton,  Professor  Ray  Lankester,  Mr.  John 
Morley,  Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  Pro- 
fessor James  Sully,  and  Mr.  Howard  Collins  (Secre- 
tary). 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

2  December,  1896. 

Hitherto  I  have  said  nothing  concerning  the  proposal 
made  in  the  Times,  chiefly  because  I  believed  that  there 
would  be  but  little  response.  But  Mr.  Hughes  tells  me 
that  you  are  cooperating  with  Professor  Sully  in  getting 
together  a  committee,  but  does  not  say  to  what  end. 
Professor  Sully  was,  as  I  understood  ten  days  ago,  tak- 
ing steps  with  a  view  to  a  congratulatory  address,  and 
I  am  now  in  doubt  whether  the  efforts  you  are  kindly 
making  in  conjunction  with  him  are  in  pursuance  of 
that  end  or  in  pursuance  of  the  end  you  suggested.  If 
97 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

this  last  is  the  purpose,  I  ought  I  think  to  let  you  know 
what  happened  when  a  kindred  proposal  was  made  some 
eight  years  ago.  .  .  .J 

My  delay  in  writing,  consequent  on  the  impression  I 
have  named,  may  I  fear  have  resulted  in  the  taking  of 
bootless  trouble,  but  I  hope  otherwise. 

Without  waiting  till  his  scruples  had  been  completely 
overcome,  the  Committee  drew  up  and  obtained  signa- 
tures to  a  letter  of  congratulation,  which  was  presented 
in  little  over  a  month  after  the  day  on  which  his  con- 
cluding volume  appeared. 

FEOM  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

16  December,  1896. 

I  am  deputed  to  transmit  to  you  the  enclosed,  and  obey 
with  unqualified  satisfaction. 

To  HERBERT  SPENCER,  ESQ. 

LONDON,  16  December,  1896. 
DEAR  SIR: 

We,  the  undersigned,  offer  you  our  cordial  congratu- 
lations upon  the  completion  of  your  "  System  of  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy." 

Not  all  of  us  agreeing  in  equal  measure  with  its  con- 
clusions, we  are  all  at  one  in  our  estimate  of  the  great 
intellectual  powers  it  exhibits  and  of  the  immense  effect 
it  has  produced  in  the  history  of  thought;  nor  are  we 
less  impressed  by  the  high  moral  qualities  which  have 
enabled  you  to  concentrate  those  powers  for  so  many 
years  upon  a  purpose  worthy  of  them,  and,  in  spite  of 
all  obstacles,  to  carry  out  so  vast  a  design. 

To  the  many  who,  like  us,  have  learned  to  honour  the 
man  while  profiting  by  his  writings,  it  would  be  a  satis- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xix.,  p.  378. 
98 


CONGRATULATIONS 

faction  to  possess  an  authentic  personal  likeness  of  the 
author.  It  has  therefore  occurred  to  us  that  the  occa- 
sion might  be  appropriately  marked  by  requesting  you 
to  permit  us  to  employ  some  eminent  artist  to  take  your 
portrait  with  a  view  to  its  being  deposited  in  one  of 
our  national  collections  for  the  benefit  of  ourselves  and 
of  those  who  come  after  us. 

We  hope  that  your  health  may  be  benefited  by  the 
leisure  which  you  have  earned  so  well,  and  that  you  may 
long  continue  to  enjoy  the  consciousness  of  having  com- 
pleted your  work. 

W.  DE  W.  ABNEY,  R.E.,  C.B.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  President 
of  the  Physical  Society. 

ROBERT  ADAMSON,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Logic,  Glas- 
gow University. 

GRANT  ALLEN,  B.A. 

ALEXANDER  BAIN,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Emeritus  Professor  of 
Logic,  Aberdeen  University. 

SIR  GEORGE  S.  BADEN-POWELL,  K.C.M.G.,  M.A.,  M.P. 

RIGHT  HON.  ARTHUR  JAMES  BALFOUR,  P.C.,  LL.D., 
F.R.S.,  M.P. 

SIR  ROBERT  STAWELL  BALL,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Lowndean 
Professor  of  Astronomy,  Cambridge  University. 

H.  CHARLTON  BASTIAN,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of 
Medicine,  University  College,  London. 

FRANK  E.  BEDDARD,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Prosector  to  the  Zoo- 
logical Society. 

JOHN  BEDDOE,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 

SIR  WALTER  BESANT,  M.A. 

E.  W.  BRABROOK,  President,  Anthropological  Institute. 
BERNARD  BOSANQUET,  M.A. 

C.   V.    BOYS,    F.R.S.,   Assistant   Professor   of   Physics, 

R.C.S. 

T.  LAUDER  BRUNTON,  M.D.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S. 
EDWARD  CLODD. 

F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

SIR  J.  CRICHTON-BROWNE,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 
99 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

W.  H.  DALLINGER,  LL.D.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S. 

FRANCIS  DARWIN,  M.A.,  M.B.,  F.R.S. 

GEORGE  H.  DARWIN,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Plumian  Pro- 
fessor of  Astronomy  and  Experimental  Physics, 
Cambridge  University. 

W.  E.  DARWIN,  F.G.S. 

JAMES  DONALDSON,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Principal,  St.  Andrews 
University. 

RIGHT  HON.  SIR  M.  E.  GRANT-DUFF,  P.C.,  G.C.S.I., 
F.R.S. 

EARL  OF  DYSART. 

SIR  JOHN  EVANS,  K.C.B.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  D.Sc.,  Treas- 
urer of  the  Royal  Society. 

SIR  JOSHUA  FITCH,  LL.D. 

MICHAEL  FOSTER,  M.A.,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  Sec.  R.S., 
Professor  of  Physiology,  Cambridge  University. 

EDWARD  FRANKLAND,  M.D.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

RIGHT  HON.  SIR  EDWARD  FRY,  P.C.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L., 
F.R.S. 

SIR  DOUGLAS  GALTON,  K.C.B.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

FRANCIS  GALTON,  M.A.,  D.C.L.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S. 

RICHARD  GARNETT,  LL.D. 

SIR  GEORGE  GROVE,  C.B.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D. 

ALBERT  C.  L.  G.  GUNTHER,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Linnsean  Society. 

FREDERIC  HARRISON,  M.A. 

JAMES  EDMUND  HARTING. 

RIGHT  HON.  LORD  HOBHOUSE,  P.O. 

HENRY  HOBHOUSE,  M.A.,  M.P. 

SHADWORTH  HODGSON,  late  President  of  the  Aristotelian 
Society. 

SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER,  K.C.S.I.,  C.B.,  M.D., 
D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

WILLIAM  HUGGINS,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

J.  HUGHLINGS  JACKSON,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

WILLIAM  KNIGHT,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy, 
St.  Andrews  University. 

ANDREW  LANG. 

100 


CONGRATULATIONS 

E.  RAY  LANKESTER,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Linacre  Pro- 
fessor of  Anatomy,  Oxford  University. 

SIR  TREVOR  LAWRENCE.  President  of  the  Royal  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

W.  E.  H.  LECKY,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  M.P. 

J.  NORMAN  LOCKYER,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Astro- 
nomical Physics,  R.C.S. 

RIGHT  HON.  SIR  JOHN  LUBBOCK,  P.C.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D., 
F.R.S.,  M.P. 

VERNON  LUSHINGTON,  Q.C. 

P.  A.  MACMAHON,  R.A.,  F.R.S.,  late  President  of  the 
Mathematical  Society. 

JAMES  MARTINEAU,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

DAVID  MASSON,  M.A.,  LL.D.,.  Emeritus  Professor  of 
Rhetoric,  Edinburgh  University. 

RAPHAEL  MELDOLA,  F.R.S.,  President  of  the  Entomologi- 
cal Society. 

C.  LLOYD  MORGAN,  Principal,  University  College,  Bristol. 

RIGHT  HON.  JOHN  MORLEY,  P.C.,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S., 
M.P. 

C.  HUBERT  H.  PARRY,  Principal,  Royal  College  of 
Music. 

GENERAL  PITT-RIVERS,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S. 

EDWARD  B.  POULTON,  M.A.,  F.R.S. ,  Professor  of  Zoology, 
Oxford  University. 

SIR  WILLIAM  O.  PRIESTLEY,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  M.P. 

LORD  REAY,  G.C.S.I.,  G.C.I.E. 

RIGHT  HON.  LORD  RAYLEIGH,  M.A.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D., 
F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  Royal  In- 
stitution. 

DAVID  G.  RITCHIE,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Logic,  St.  An- 
drews University. 

SIR  HENRY  E.  ROSCOE,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S. 

J.  S.  BURDON  SANDERSON,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  Regius 
Professor  of  Medicine,  Oxford  University. 

GEORGE  H.  SAVAGE,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P. 

E.  A.  SCHAFER,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Physiology,  Uni- 
versity College,  London. 
101 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

D.  H.  SCOTT,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  F.R.S.,  Honorary  Keeper, 

Jodrell  Laboratory,  Kew. 
HENRY  SIDGWICK,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  D.C.L.,   Professor  of 

Moral  Philosophy,  Cambridge  University. 
W.  R.   SORLEY,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy, 

Aberdeen  University. 
LESLIE  STEPHEN,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  LL.D. 
G.  F.  STOUT,  M.A. 
JAMES  SULLY,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

W.  T.  THISELTON-DYER,  C.M.G.,  C.I.E.,  M.A.,  F.R.S. 
JOHN  VENN,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S. 
SYDNEY  HOWARD  VINES,  M.A.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Professor 

of  Botany,  Oxford  University. 
SIR  WILLOUGHBY  WADE,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P. 
ALFRED  RUSSEL  WALLACE,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S. 
BEATRICE  WEBB. 
LADY  VICTORIA  WELBY. 
SAMUEL  WILKS,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  President  of  the 

College  of  Physicians. 


HAWARDEN,  November  30,  1896. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — It  has  long  been  my  rule  to  decline 
joining  in  groups  of  signatures,  nor  do  I  think  myself 
entitled  to  bear  a  prominent  part  in  the  present  case. 
But  I  beg  that  you  will,  if  you  think  proper,  set  me  down 
as  an  approver  of  the  request  to  Mr.  Spencer,  whose 
signal  abilities  and,  rarer  still,  whose  manful  and  self- 
denying  character,  are  so  justly  objects  of  admiration. 
I  remain  your  very  faithful, 

F.  Howard  Collins,  Esq.  W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

No  time  was  lost  before  replying  to  these  cordial  con- 
gratulations. 

2,  LEWES  CRESCENT,  BRIGHTON, 

19  December,  1896. 

MY  DEAR  HOOKER, — If,  as  may  fitly  be  said,  the  value 
of  congratulations  increases  in  a  geometrical  progression 
102 


CONGRATULATIONS 

with  the  eminence  of  those  offering  them,  I  may,  indeed, 
be  extremely  gratified  by  the  accumulation  coming  from 
men  standing  so  high  in  various  spheres.  And  an  ac- 
companying pleasure  necessarily  results  from  the  good 
wishes  expressed  for  my  health  and  happiness  during 
my  remaining  days. 

The  further  honour  offered  has  caused  in  me  some 
mental  conflict.  Eight  years  ago,  to  the  inquiry  whether 
I  would  sit  for  a  subscription  portrait  to  be  painted  by 
Millais,  I  replied  negatively,  assigning  the  reasons  that 
the  raising  of  funds  to  pay  the  costs  of  conferring  marks 
of  approbation  had  grown  into  an  abuse ;  that  the  moral 
coercion  under  which  contributions  were  in  many  cases 
obtained  was  repugnant  to  me ;  and  that  I  objected  to 
have  my  known  and  unknown  friends  asked  to  tax  them- 
selves to  the  required  extent.  These  reasons  survived, 
and,  swayed  by  them,  I  recently  sent  a  copy  of  the  letter 
in  which  they  had  been  stated  to  the  gentleman  with 
whom  the  proposal  now  made  originated,  thinking 
thereby  to  prevent  further  trouble.  I  was  unaware  to 
how  large  an  extent  the  proposal  had  been  adopted  and 
how  distinguished  were  the  numerous  gentlemen  who 
had  given  it  their  support.  I  now  find  myself  obliged 
either  inconsistently  to  waive  my  objection  or  else  rudely 
to  slight  the  cordially-expressed  feelings  and  wishes  of 
so  many  whose  positions  and  achievements  command  my 
great  respect.  Between  the  alternatives  there  seems  to 
be  practically  no  choice.  I  am  compelled  to  yield  to  the 
request  made  in  so  sympathetic  a  manner  by  signatories 
so  eminent,  and  at  the  same  time  must  express  to  them 
through  you  my  full  sense  of  the  honour  done  me. 
I  am,  my  dear  Hooker,  sincerely  yours, 
HERBERT  SPENCER. 


The  consent  to  sit  for  his  portrait,  thus  reluctantly 
obtained  at  the  moment  when  he  was  impressed  with  a 
sense  of  the  kindness  of  those  who  proposed  to  honour 
103 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

him  in  so  conspicuous  a  manner,  was  followed  by  mis- 
givings after  a  few  days  reflection.  His  scruples  again 
came  to  the  surface  on  being  asked :  ' '  Have  you  thought 
over  the  question  of  the  artist?  " 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

30  December,  1896. 

Your  question  is  simple,  but  the  answer  is  not  so 
simple. 

Some  three  months  ago,  before  his  departure  for 
America,  Mr.  Carnegie  pressed  me  to  sit  for  a  portrait  to 
be  presented  by  him  to  the  Pittsburg  Institution.  .  .  . 
I  willingly  yielded,  and  agreed  to  the  suggestion  that 
the  portrait  should  be  painted  by  Mr.  Ouless.  .  .  . 

But  now  comes  a  question.  These  leading  artists  ask 
exorbitant  sums  for  their  work,  and  if  the  cost  of  a  por- 
trait is  to  be  borne  by  those  only  who  have  signed  the 
address,  on  each  of  whom  the  tax  would  then  be  consid- 
erable, I  should  decidedly  demur.  In  that  case  the  only 
fit  course  would  be  to  commission  Mr.  Ouless  to  make  a 
replica  of  the  portrait  he  paints  for  Mr.  Carnegie.  The 
cost  of  this  would  not  be  excessive. 

The  painting  of  the  portrait  was  entrusted  to  Mr. 
(now  Sir)  Hubert  von  Herkomer. 

Some  two  days  before  receipt  of  the  address  he  had 
written  to  Mr.  Carnegie  to  the  effect  that  he  had  stopped 
the  action  of  those  who  were  making  preparations  for 
a  subscription  portrait.  He  had  now  to  explain  his 
change  of  front. 

To  ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

4  January,  1897. 

I  have  had  to  yield.     A  few  days  after  I  wrote  to  you 
there  came  to  me  an  address  of  congratulation  bearing 
104 


CONGRATULATIONS 

over  eighty  signatures,  including  those  of  men  of  emi- 
nence in  various  spheres,  political,  scientific,  literary, 
etc.,  joined  with  a  request  that  I  would  sit  for  a  portrait. 
I  had  not  anticipated  anything  so  influential,  and  found 
myself  in  the  predicament  of  having  either  to  abandon 
my  resolution  or  else  to  slight,  in  a  marked  and  public 
way,  numerous  men  whom  I  have  every  reason  to  re- 
spect, and  bring  upon  myself  condemnation  as  ill-man- 
nered and  perverse. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

8  January,  1897. 

You  have  been  victorious  all  along  the  line,  as  the 
phrase  is — victorious  over  others  and  victorious  over 
me.  I  did  not  expect  to  have  my  flank  turned  in  such 
an  irresistible  way.  However,  though  I  have  to  recognise 
myself  as  in  a  manner  defeated,  there  is  of  course,  a  sat- 
isfaction in  the  defeat,  along  with  a  small  set-off  the 
other  way. 

My  feeling  towards  my  fellow-countrymen  (especially 
as  contrasted  with  the  Americans)  has  for  years  past 
not  been  a  very  friendly  one,  and  my  antagonistic  atti- 
tude has  been  in  part  due  to  this  feeling.  Honour  long 
delayed  loses  the  quality  of  honour.  .  .  .  However,  the 
thing  is  now  done  and  well  done;  and  having  been  in- 
itiated and  largely  urged  on  by  you,  let  me  offer  you 
my  hearty  thanks.  In  you,  at  any  rate,  there  has  never 
been  any  tardiness  of  appreciation. 

It  is  a  pity  that  he  dwelt  so  much  on  the  tardiness  of 
the  honour,  and  so  little  on  the  cordiality  and  unanimity 
displayed  in  the  bestowing  of  it.  It  is  strange  that  he 
did  not  remember  how  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury he  had  persistently,  and  at  times  almost  ungra- 
ciously, declined  every  honour  that  had  been  offered  him. 
The  warmth  with  which  the  press  also  supported  the 
105 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

step  his  friends  had  taken  ought  to  have  gone  far  to 
remove  any  lingering  feeling  of  bitterness  for  supposed 
past  neglect.  Such  commendable  despatch  had  been 
shown  with  the  address  that  many  who  would  have 
signed  it  came  to  know  of  it  only  when  the  report  of  the 
presentation  appeared  in  the  newspapers.  The  absence 
of  their  names  was  more  than  compensated  for  by  the 
cordiality  of  their  private  expressions  of  regret  at  hav- 
ing missed  the  opportunity  of  joining  in  the  public  tes- 
timonial. As  noted  in  a  previous  chapter  (xx.,  p.  393), 
the  letters  in  which  he  complains  of  neglect  on  the  part 
of  his  countrymen  have  to  be  read  along  with  those  in 
which  he  acknowledges  the  sympathetic  appreciation  his 
writings  had  secured  at  home. 

To  THE  RIGHT  HON.  ARTHUR  J.  BALFOUR. 

3  February,  1897. 

From  Mr.  Howard  Collins  ...  I  learn  that  I  am  in- 
debted to  you  for  much  more  than  is  implied  by  your 
signature  to  the  address  of  congratulation,  etc. — in- 
debted for  active  aid  which,  noteworthy  as  it  would  have 
been  in  one  having  leisure,  is  much  more  noteworthy  in 
one  so  much  pressed  by  public  business,  and  noteworthy 
in  a  still  higher  degree  as  given  by  one  who  in  important 
matters  differs  in  belief.  And  that  this  aid  should  have 
been  given  unobtrusively,  too,  so  divesting  it  of  any  pos- 
sible motive  other  than  that  of  genuine  sympathy,  ren- 
ders it  still  more  remarkable.  Pray  accept  the  thanks 
which  I  find  it  imperative  to  offer. 

My  appreciation  is  made  the  greater  on  considering 
what  I  might  myself  have  done  under  like  conditions. 
A  passive  assent,  would,  I  think,  have  been  the  limit  of 
my  adhesion.  I  doubt  whether  my  generosity  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  prompt  active  co-operation. 
Could  I  ascribe  this  difference  in  action  to  difference  in 
106 


CONGRATULATIONS 

creed,  the  belief  would  do  much  towards  shaking  some 
of  my  general  views.  But  innate  superiority  of  nature 
I  take  to  be  the  true  cause. 

The  first  part  of  this  letter  was  written  in  his  own 
hand,  but  the  effort  was  too  much,  and  the  rest  had  to 
be  dictated. 

To  JAMES  SULLY. 

6  February,  1897. 

Among  the  things  which  should  have  been  done,  but 
have  not  been  done,  is  the  writing  to  you  a  letter  ex- 
pressing my  indebtedness  for  the  efforts  you  have  made 
in  furthering  the  recent  manifestation  of  sympathy  and 
approval.  I  say  "  in  furthering  ";  but  remembering  the 
steps  which  you  took  to  initiate  an  address  of  congratu- 
lation— steps  taken  I  think  independently  at  the  time 
when  Mr.  Collins  proposed  a  portrait — the  word  is 
scarcely  adequate.  ...  I  must  not  let  the  matter  end 
without  offering  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  all  you  have 
done. 

As  you  doubtless  know  by  experience,  a  writer's  chief 
gratification  is  in  the  consciousness  of  work  satisfactorily 
done,  but  second  only  to  that  is  the  manifestation  of 
approval  from  the  select. 

Among  the  manifestations  of  approval  from  "  the 
select  ' '  was  the  offer  of  the  degree  of  D.Sc.,  from  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  and  that  of  LL.D.  from  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  Both  were  declined.  A  pro- 
posal was  made  by  the  municipal  authorities  of  Derby 
to  mark  the  house  of  his  birth  with  a  tablet,  but  for 
reasons  unknown  it  was  not  carried  out.1  As  for  the 
portrait,  there  were  many  appointments  and  disappoint- 

1  A  marble  tablet  was  put  up  by  the  Derby  Spencer  Society 
in  1907. 

107 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

ments,  so  that  nothing  was  done  till  almost  the  end  of 
the  year. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

BRIGHTON,  6  December,  1897. 

Who  is  silly  enough  to  say  that  I  decline  to  sit?  I 
have  not  left  this  room  for  these  six  weeks.  It  is  hard 
to  have  my  misfortunes  used  as  weapons.  Herkomer 
was  here  three  days  ago,  and  would  have  taken  photo- 
graphs of  me  sitting  in  bed  had  the  light  been  good. 
He  comes  again  next  week. 

23  December. — Mr.  Herkomer  was  to  have  been  here 
last  week,  but  wrote  me  that  an  attack  of  influenza  was 
keeping  him  indoors.  Yesterday  he  came  and  took  five 
photographs;  and  he  comes  again  to-morrow  to  take 
more.  He  talks  of  making  the  portrait  wholly  from 
photographs,  but  I  cannot  assent  to  this;  there  must 
be  some  sittings  to  finish  from. 

Who  is  the  unfriendly  friend  who  takes  the  attitude 
which  your  letters  seem  to  imply  ?  .  .  .  A  while  ago  you 
spoke  of  my  "  declining  "  to  sit  according  to  promise. 
.  .  .  And  then,  after  all,  the  supposition  that  I  alone 
am  responsible  for  the  delay  is  an  utter  mistake.  Dur- 
ing a  considerable  part  of  the  late  summer  months  when 
I  could  have  sat,  had  circumstances  permitted,  Mr.  Her- 
komer was  on  the  Continent,  and,  when  I  returned  to 
town  about  the  middle  of  September,  I  believe  was  still 
away,  for  I  had  no  replies  in  answer  to  letters  I 
wrote.  .  .  . 

Your  letter  reached  me  last  night  just  as  I  was  going 
to  bed,  and  the  irritation  it  caused  kept  me  awake  a  good 
part  of  the  night. 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

27  December,  1897. 

Inquiries  and  remarks  which  have  come  round  to  me 
during  the  last  three  months,  imply  that  the  long  delay 
108 


CONGRATULATIONS 

in  the  execution  of  the  portrait  has  caused  some  adverse 
feeling:  the  delay  being  ascribed  to  perversity  on  my 
part.  .  .  . 

I  dislike  obligations  of  the  kind  implied  by  a  sub- 
scription-portrait, and  if  there  is,  in  any  of  those  con- 
cerned, a  lack  of  cordiality,  my  dislike  becomes  some- 
thing stronger.  .  .  .  My  present  desire  is  that  Mr.  Her- 
komer  shall  be  paid  by  me,  and  that  the  subscriptions 
shall  be  returned:  each  being  accompanied  by  a  copy 
of  this  letter. 

Sir  Joseph  Hooker  hastened  to  set  his  mind  at  rest, 
telling  him  that  he  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  there 
was  any  want  of  cordiality  among  the  subscribers  to  the 
portrait.  On  receiving  this  assurance  he  wrote  again. 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

30  December,  1897. 

Your  letter  received.  Very  many  thanks  for  it.  It 
relieves  my  fears  and  I  gladly  accept  your  assurances, 
and  now  desire  that  you  should  keep  my  letter  to  your- 
self. 

Mr.  Collins  has  said  on  several  occasions  things  which, 
it  seems,  I  had  misinterpreted. 

The  artist  was  working  in  circumstances  of  extreme 
difficulty,  never  having  had  a  proper  sitting.  At 
length,  however,  in  February  the  portrait  was  finished. 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

2  March,  1898. 

Mr.  Collins  wrote  to  me  a  few  days  ago  saying  that 
the  portrait  is  "  splendid  and  admirable  "  and  express- 
ing the  feeling  that,  as  having  been  so  largely  influential 
in  getting  it  done,  you  ought  to  be  congratulated ;  if  for 
no  other  reason  than  for  the  reason  of  having  acquired 
109 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

for  the  public  f  so  fine  a  work  of  art,  for  he  speaks  of  it 
especially  as  a  work  of  art  which  has  its  interest  under 
that  aspect  irrespective  of  any  interest  it  may  otherwise 
have.  I  coincide  in  his  feeling  and  gladly  on  public  as 
on  private  grounds  join  in  the  congratulation. 

Oddly  enough  it  seems  likely  that  I  shall  never  see  it. 
...  I  must  be  content  with  seeing  a  photograph. 

When  the  Herkomer  photogravure  reproduction  of  the 
portrait  was  sent  him  he  wrote: — 

To  HUBERT  VON  HERKOMER,  R.A. 

18  April,  1898. 

Of  course  the  judgments  of  my  friends  with  regard  to 
the  portrait  are  to  be  accepted  rather  than  any  judgment 
of  mine,  since  the  looking  glass,  inverting  the  two  sides, 
does  not  rightly  show  a  man  his  own  face,  and  since 
moreover  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  see  his  face  in  the 
position  you  have  chosen. 

There  is,  however,  one  point  in  the  face  which  strikes 
me,  namely,  the  aquiline  outline  of  the  nose  is  somewhat 
too  pronounced — perhaps  not  too  pronounced  for  the 
position  in  which  the  head  was  placed,  but  too  pro- 
nounced in  respect  of  the  average  shape  of  the  nose — I 
say  "  average  "  because  the  nose  is  not  quite  the  same 
shape  when  seen  from  the  two  sides.  .  .  . 

The  secret  of  it  is  that  when  a  little  child  my  nose  was 
cut  with  a  carving  knife  by  a  little  sister.  The  wound  did 
not  leave  a  scar,  so  far  as  appears,  but  the  result  was 
that  on  one  side  the  outline  is  more  protuberant  than  on 
the  other,  and  this  gives  from  certain  points  of  view  an 
aquiline  character,  which  is  not  manifest  from  other 
points  of  view. 

I  wish  I  had  remembered  this  fact  when  the  photo- 
graph was  taken,  for  I  should  then  have  suggested  an 
attitude  giving  a  straighter  outline,  for  I  do  not  like  the 
aquiline  outline.  Of  course  it  is  a  considerable  element 
110 


CONGRATULATIONS 

in  the  character  of  the  face.  ...  If  I  had  seen  the 
photograph  earlier  I  should  have  suggested  a  slight  al- 
teration. .  .  .  However,  though  it  is  too  late  before  the 
Academy  exhibition  (unless  you  can  do  it  on  varnishing 
day)  it  is  not  otherwise  too  late,  and  I  should  much  like 
a  slight  rectification  (in  a  double  sense). 

You  have  it  seems  to  me  succeeded  well  in  an  essential 
point,  namely  the  expression.  There  is  a  far-off  gaze 
appropriate  to  a  thinker,  and  it  is  an  understanding 
gaze,  which  of  course  I  consider  is  not  inappropriate. 
.  .  .  Success  in  this  respect  is  an  essential  success. 

One  other  criticism  occurs  to  me.  Unfortunately  I 
wore  the  dressing  gown  over  a  morning  coat,  and  an  im- 
pression was  thereby  given  of  bulkiness  of  body.  This 
impression,  moreover,  is  strengthened  by  the  way  in 
which  the  shoulder  and  right  arm  extend  very  much. 
The  total  effect  of  this  large  expanse  of  body  and  dress 
is  somewhat  to  dwarf  the  head.  To  me  the  impression 
given  is  that  of  a  small-headed  man.  Though  my  head 
is  not  at  all  specially  large,  still  it  is  22  inches  round, 
and  I  think  a  spectator  would  guess  a  smaller  size. 

There,  you  see  I  have  again  illustrated  my  inveterate 
habit  of  fault-finding.  However  I  suppose  you  would 
prefer  to  have  my  candid  remarks  rather  than  unmean- 
ing applause.  You  may  at  any  rate  be  quite  content 
with  the  opinions  of  my  friends. 

The  Times  (30  April,  1898)  notice  of  the  Royal 
Academy  Exhibition  was  severe  on  both  Mr.  von  Her- 
komer  and  Spencer.  Of  the  artist  it  was  said:  "  Per- 
haps it  is  hardly  his  fault  if  that  which  ought  to  have 
been  a  masterpiece,  ...  is  very  much  the  reverse." 
And  of  the  sitter :  "  To  get  proper  sittings  from  him  was 
an  impossibility;  neither  the  wishes  of  illustrious  ad- 
mirers, nor  thoughts  of  posthumous  fame,  nor  any  simi- 
lar consideration,  had  any  effect  whatever." 
Ill 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  HUBERT  VON  HERKOMER,  R.A. 

30  April,  1898. 

I  cannot  allow  myself  to  remain  under  the  implied 
stigma  which  the  Times'  report  of  the  Academy  Exhibi- 
tion contains,  where  I  am  described  as  practically  disre- 
garding "  the  wishes  of  "  my  "  illustrious  admirers," 
expressed  though  they  were  in  so  gratifying  a  manner 
and  accompanied  by  their  contributions.  The  utterly 
undeserved  reflection  upon  me  must  be  in  some  way  dis- 
sipated. "Will  you  do  it,  or  must  !?...!  should  of 
course  prefer  that  you  should  rectify  this  misapprehen- 
sion by  distinctly  specifying  the  causes  and  incidents, 
but  if  you  decline  I  must  do  it  myself. 

Mr.  von  Herkomer  being  in  Italy,  Spencer  himself 
wrote  to  the  Times  (5  May)  pointing  out  that  the  art 
critic  had  been  misled  by  rumour.  "  I  feel  obliged  to 
make  this  statement  out  of  regard  for  the  feelings  of 
the  many  distinguished  friends  and  others  who,  having 
expressed  their  wishes  in  so  gratifying  a  manner,  would 
feel  slighted  did  I  let  them  suppose  that  those  wishes 
had  been  so  little  regarded  by  me." 

The  portrait  by  Mr.  Ouless  for  Mr.  Carnegie  had  still 
to  be  painted.  First  one  thing  prevented  a  beginning 
being  made,  and  then  another.  When  the  artist  was 
ready,  Spencer  was  too  ill  to  sit;  and  when  Spencer 
was  well  enough,  the  artist  had  other  engagements.  He 
was  also  worrying  himself  over  the  thought  of  what 
people  would  say  if  he  sat  to  Mr.  Ouless  after  having 
been  unable  to  sit  for  Mr.  von  Herkomer.  "  Explana- 
tions could  not  easily  be  given,  and  even  were  they  given 
would  be  insufficient. ' '  This  difficulty  disappeared  in  an 
unexpected  way.  After  more  than  twelve  months  of 
fruitless  attempts  to  arrange  for  sittings,  he  wrote  to 
112 


HEKBEBT  SPENCER. 
From  a  painting  by  Sir  Hubert  von  Herkomer,  R.A. 


CONGRATULATIONS 

Mr.  Ouless  that  the  painting  must  be  abandoned  alto- 
gether. 

FROM  WALTER  W.  OULESS,  E.A. 

13  October,  1899. 

I  am  indeed  sorry  that,  after  all,  the  portrait  has  to  be 
abandoned,  but,  besides  other  circumstances  you  men- 
tion, I  recognise  the  difficulties  for  the  sitter  and  the 
painter.  The  sittings  could  hardly  fail  to  be  a  severe 
strain  and  fatigue  for  you,  and,  if  that  were  so,  it  would 
be  almost  hopeless  to  make  the  portrait  a  success.  There- 
fore, considering  all  things,  I  cannot  but  acquiesce  in 
your  view  that  the  portrait  must  be  finally  given  up, 
but  I  do  so  with  very  deep  regret. 

He  wavered  from  time  to  time  in  his  opinion  of  the 
Herkomer  portrait,  being  influenced  greatly  by  the  judg- 
ments now  favourable,  now  unfavourable,  expressed  by 
his  friends.  Several  letters  passed  between  him  and  Mr. 
von  Herkomer  about  suggested  alterations,  but  to  no 
purpose.  Being  unwilling  that  the  portrait  should  go 
into  the  National  Gallery,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Sargent  about 
a  portrait  on  his  own  account;  but  the  terms  were  too 
high.  He  then  bethought  him  that  the  portrait  by  Mr. 
Burgess  would  be  suitable  for  the  National  Gallery,  and 
asked  Mr.  Ouless  whether  he  could  recommend  an  artist 
to  make  a  copy  of  it  for  presentation  to  his  native 
town.  On  Mr.  Ouless 's  recommendation  the  work  was 
entrusted  to  Mr.  J.  Hanson  Walker.  How  far  Spencer's 
mind  was  even  at  this  late  date  from  being  settled  about 
the  Herkomer  portrait  is  shown  by  a  remark  in  January, 
1901,  to  Dr.  Charlton  Bastian,  who  thought  that  it, 
rather  than  the  Burgess  portrait,  should  go  to  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery.  "  Thank  you,  too,  for  your 
113 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

opinion  respecting  the  Herkomer  portrait.  It  is  prob- 
able I  shall  adopt  it,  but  I  will  take  the  opinion  of  some 
other  friends."  1 

1  During  the  last  year  of  his  life,  Mrs.  Meinertzhagen  induced 
him  to  allow  Miss  Alice  Grant  to  paint  a  portrait  of  him  mainly 
from  the  photograph  he  had  taken  for  Mr.  Sargent  iii  1898. 


114 


CHAPTER  XXV 

REVISION  OF  BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES 
(October,  1895— April,  1900) 

FOLLOWING  his  usual  practice  of  looking  well  ahead, 
he  had  in  1895  ordered  copies  of  the  Principles  of  Bi- 
ology to  be  interleaved  and  sent  to  young  biologists,  rec- 
ommended as  being  familiar  with  recent  developments 
of  the  science,  with  instructions  to  scrutinise  the  al- 
leged facts  and  to  see  whether  the  inferences  drawn 
from  them  were  justified,  leaving  untouched  the  scheme 
of  the  work  as  well  as  its  general  principles.  By  the 
time  the  last  volume  of  the  Sociology  was  issued,  each 
of  the  collaborators  had  gone  through  his  assigned  por- 
tion. 

His  interest  in  biological  questions  had  been  kept 
smouldering  since  1867  when  he  completed  the  Biology. 
Now  and  again  during  these  years  the  latent  fire  had 
burst  into  flame,  as  in  the  Weismann  controversy.  At 
other  times  it  merely  flickered.  The  revision  for  which 
he  was  now  preparing  furnished  opportunities  for  giv- 
ing expression  to  opinions  of  long  standing,  respecting 
the  methods  to  be  followed  in  biological  enquiries  and 
the  attitude  frequently  adopted  by  scientific  men  to- 
wards them.  Biologists  chiefly  were  in  his  mind  when 
he  wrote  to  Dr.  (now  Sir)  William  Gowers  that  "  the 
immense  majority  of  writers  in  the  special  divisions 
of  science  have  a  horror  of  wide  views,  and  prefer  to 
115 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

limit  themselves  to  their  details  and  technicalities." 
The  largest  share  of  adverse  criticism  was,  however,  re- 
served for  mathematicians. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

BRIGHTON,  3  December,  1895. 

[Lack  of  judgment]  is  a  very  common  trait  of  mathe- 
maticians. Their  habit  of  mind  becomes  such  that  they 
are  incapable  of  forming  rational  conclusions  when  they 
have  to  deal  with  contingent  evidences.  .  .  . 

I  wish  you  would  make  ...  an  inquiry  bearing  upon 
the  question  of  the  limitation  of  heredity  by  sex.  It  oc- 
curred to  me  lately  that  this,  for  which  there  is  so  much 
evidence,  may  be  statistically  tested  by  inquiries  con- 
cerning longevity  in  families.  If  inquiry  shows  that  in 
a  certain  marriage  the  husband  belongs  to  a  family  of 
which  the  members  on  the  average  die  earlier  than  usual, 
while  the  wife  belongs  to  a  family  of  which  on  the  aver- 
age the  members  have  lived  to  a  good  age  or  a  great  age, 
then  if  there  is  limitation  of  heredity  by  sex,  the 
daughters  of  that  marriage  will  be  long-lived  and  the 
sons  short-lived.  This  is  an  inquiry  quite  practicable, 
and  might  or  might  not  serve  to  verify  conclusions  de- 
rived from  other  evidence. 

5  December. — The  mathematician  in  dealing  with  con- 
tingent matters  does  not  go  wrong  in  reasoning  from 
his  premises,  he  goes  wrong  in  his  choice  of  premises. 
He  continually  assumes  that  these  are  simple  when  they 
are  really  complex — omits  some  of  the  factors.  His 
habit  of  thought  is  that  of  dealing  with  few  and  quite 
definite  data,  and  he  carries  that  habit  of  thought  into 
regions  where  the  data  are  many  and  indefinite,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  treat  a  few  of  them  as  though  they  were  all,  and 
regards  them  as  definite.  Lord  Kelvin  has  furnished 
repeated  illustrations  of  this. 
116 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

9  December. — I  am  desirous  in  all  cases  to  exclude 
superfluities  from  my  environment.  Multiplication  of 
books  and  magazines  and  papers  which  I  do  not  need 
continually  annoys  me.  As  you  may  perhaps  remem- 
ber, I  shut  out  the  presence  of  books  by  curtains,  that 
I  may  be  free  from  the  sense  of  complexity  which  they 
yield.  [This  had  reference  to  an  interleaved  copy  of  the 
Biology  Mr.  Collins  had  sent.] 

It  had  been  suggested  that  Mr.  Darwin's  house  at 
Down  should  be  acquired  for  a  biological  station,  where 
questions  relating  to  heredity  might  be  rigorously  tested 
by  experiments  carried  out  under  the  supervision,  as  it 
would  seem,  of  a  committee  of  the  Royal  Society.  The 
first  intimation  Spencer  had  of  this  was  from  Professor 
Adam  Sedgwick  in  December,  1896,  and  soon  after  it 
was  again  brought  to  his  notice  by  Mr.  Francis  Galton. 

To  FRANCIS  GALTON. 

16  January,  1897. 

The  courses  suggested  seem  to  me  impolitic.  Every- 
thing is  on  too  large  a  scale. 

The  purchase  of  Darwin's  house  seems  appropriate  as 
a  matter  of  sentiment,  but  as  a  matter  of  business  very- 
inappropriate.  The  whole  undertaking  would  be  handi- 
capped at  the  outset  by  heavy  expenditure  to  little 
purpose.  I  should  be  disinclined  to  co-operate  were  any 
such  imprudent  step  taken. 

The  thing  should  be  commenced  on  a  small  scale  by 
the  few  who  have  already  interested  themselves  in  it — 
say  three  or  four  acres  with  some  cheap  wooden  build- 
ings. .  .  . 

Co-operation  with  breeders  would  I  believe  be  futile. 
You  could  never  get  them  to  fulfil  the  requisite  condi- 
tions, and  selection  would  be  certain  to  come  in  and 
vitiate  the  results. 

117 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Your  last  question,  concerning  my  contribution  and 
its  applicability  to  the  committee  of  the  Royal  Society, 
I  do  not  understand.  I  do  not  know  what  you  mean 
as  to  any  action  of  the  Royal  Society.  If  it  refers  to  the 
purchase  of  the  Darwin  house  I  should  distinctly  say 
No. 

To  G.  H.  DARWIN. 

27  July,  1900. 

Respecting  the  establishment  for  biological  purposes 
...  I  agree  with  you  that  there  is  little  hope  of  any- 
thing being  done.  .  .  . 

I  have  never,  however,  myself  approved  of  the  project 
in  the  form  originally  suggested,  commencing  with  pur- 
chase of  the  Down  estate.  I  do  not  believe  in  big 
things  to  commence  with,  .  .  .  But  the  management  is, 
in  fact,  the  chief  difficulty — how  to  elect  a  fit  governing 
body  and  how  to  ensure  that  they  shall  carry  on  their 
inquiries  and  report  the  results  in  a  thoroughly  un- 
biassed way.  Nearly  all  the  men  available  in  respect  of 
their  biological  knowledge  are  partisans,  and  if  there 
were  a  balanced  representation  of  the  two  sides,  it  is  very 
probable  that  the  administration  would  come  to  a  dead- 
lock. If  otherwise,  the  verdict  would  be  in  large  meas- 
ure a  foregone  conclusion. 

Direct  references  to  the  revision  of  the  Biology  are 
few.  He  had  correspondence  with  Professor  Marcus 
Hartog,  on  biological  questions,  during  1897-98.  Of  a 
note  by  the  latter,  about  to  appear  in  Natural  Science, 
Spencer  says  (May,  1898):  "  At  present,  being  unfa- 
miliar with  the  set  of  facts  to  which  you  refer,  I  had 
some  difficulty  in  following  the  statement.  I  may  re- 
mark, however,  that  there  may  be  a  marked  distinction 
between  the  process  of  multiplication  of  successive  gen- 
erations of  cells  and  the  sudden  breaking  up  of  cells  in 
spores."  It  was  probably  this  that  suggested  the  send- 
118 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

ing  to  Natural  Science  the  relevant  passages  of  a  new 
chapter  in  the  Biology  on  "  Cell-Life  and  Cell-Multipli- 
cation," containing  certain  new  interpretations  of  re- 
cent facts,  which  he  thought  it  well  to  publish  before- 
hand. Later  in  the  year  he  sent  to  Nature  a  letter 
on  "  Stereo- Chemistry  and  Vitalism,"  and  another  on 
' '  Asymmetry  and  Vitalism, ' '  with  reference  to  Professor 
Japp's  address  to  the  Chemical  Section  of  the  British 
Association.  In  the  second  of  these  letters  he  says  that 
neither  the  physico-chemical  theory  nor  the  theory  of  a 
vital  principle  explains  life,  the  ultimate  nature  of  which 
is  incomprehensible. 

The  congratulations  on  the  completion  of  the  Synthetic 
Philosophy  stirred  up  criticism,  sometimes  in  a  fair,  en- 
quiring spirit,  sometimes  in  a  spirit  hostile  and  captious. 
During  December  a  correspondence  was  carried  on  in  the 
Times.1  Mr.  Bramwell  Booth  having  accused  him  of 
inconsistency,  Spencer  pointed  out  that  his  ideas,  in 
common  with  other  things,  had  undergone  evolution.  In 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Collins,  Mr.  Booth  maintained  that  Spen- 
cer's fundamental  changes  of  view  "  have  been  so  fre- 
quent, and  so  radical,  and  if  one  may  say  so,  so  violent, 
that  they  totally  differ  from  such  gradual  and  natural 
developments  as  are,  as  you  point  out,  common  to  all 
processes  of  thought." 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

25  January,  1897. 

Tell  Mr.  Booth  that  his  contention  is  utterly  beside 
the  mark.  My  change  from  Theism  to  Agnosticism,  to 
which  I  suppose  he  more  especially  refers,  took  place 

1  Times,  2,  8,  15,  17,  18    December,  1896. 
119 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

long  before  the  evolutionary  philosophy  was  commenced, 
and  long  before  I  ever  thought  of  writing  it,  and  the 
change  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  doctrine  of 
evolution.  There  has  been  no  change  whatever  in  that 
respect  since  1860,  when  the  writing  of  the  philosophy 
was  commenced.  .  .  . 

My  change  of  opinion  on  the  Land  question,  which  is 
the  other  change  on  which  he  insists,  is  but  remotely  re- 
lated to  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  and  even  then  is  a 
change  not  in  principle,  but  only  in  policy. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association, 
towards  the  end  of  1896,  he  was  said  to  have  been  largely 
influenced  by  the  teachings  of  the  Vedanta,  through  the 
writings  of  Sir  William  Jones.  This  he  called  a  "  wild 
idea,"  seeing  that  he  did  not  even  know  the  name 
Vedanta,  and  had  never  read  any  of  Sir  William  Jones's 
writings.  But  "  there  are  always  some  people  who  find 
that  a  man's  ideas  are  not  his  own,  but  somebody  else's." 

When  translating  the  last  part  of  the  Principles  of 
Sociology,  Dr.  Gazelles  had  encountered  an  unforeseen 
difficulty.  In  §  849  M.  Hanotaux,  the  French  foreign 
minister,  is  represented  as  having  made  a  statement  "  on 
the  need  there  was  for  competing  in  political  burglaries 
with  other  nations."  Unable  to  take  the  responsibility 
of  spreading  this  throughout  France,  Dr.  Gazelles,  who, 
during  the  thirty  years  he  had  been  engaged  in  trans- 
lating the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  had  retained  Spen- 
cer's highest  esteem,  felt  compelled  to  relinquish  the 
work,  to  his  own  deep  regret  no  less  than  to  Spencer's. 

To  E.  GAZELLES. 

6  December,  1896. 

I  greatly  regret  the  decision  expressed  in  your  letter 
just  received — regret  it  alike  on  personal  grounds  and 
120 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

on  public  grounds.  All  things  remembered,  however,  I 
do  not  greatly  wonder  that  your  attitude  is  that  which 
you  describe. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  let  me  point  out  to  you  that,  in 
a  preceding  paragraph,  England's  dealings  with  native 
peoples  in  all  parts  of  the  world  are  condemned  quite  as 
strongly  and  much  more  elaborately.  In  the  second 
place,  let  me  point  out  that,  if  I  remember  rightly  (I 
have  not  the  book  here),  I  speak  of  France  "  vying  "  in 
"  political  burglaries  "  with  other  civilised  nations:  the 
obvious  implication  being  that  all  are  chargeable  with 
the  same  offence.  Then,  in  the  third  place,  let  me  point 
out  that  I  have,  if  not  in  this  last  volume,  yet  in  another 
volume  (the  Study  of  Sociology)  used  the  expression 
"  political  burglary  "  in  reference  to  our  own  doings 
especially;  and  I  may  add  that,  in  characterising  our 
invasion  of  Afghanistan  as  a  "  political  burglary,"  I 
gave  grievous  offence  to  Lord  Lytton,  who  was  then 
Viceroy  and  to  whom  I  was  known  personally.  You 
will  see,  therefore,  that  my  implied  condemnation 
does  not  refer  to  the  French  more  than  to  the  other 
European  peoples,  and  that  I  could  not  very  well  have 
omitted  to  condemn  the  one  without  injustice  to  the 
other. 

The  truth  is  that,  of  all  the  feelings  I  entertain  con- 
cerning social  affairs,  my  detestation  of  the  barbarous 
conduct  of  strong  peoples  to  weak  peoples  is  the  most 
intense.  ...  To  my  thinking  the  nations  which  call 
themselves  civilised  are  no  better  than  white  savages, 
who,  with  their  cannon  and  rifles,  conquer  tribes  of  dark 
savages,  armed  with  javelins  and  arrows,  as  easily  as  a 
giant  thrashes  a  child,  and  who,  having  glorified  them- 
selves in  their  victories,  take  possession  of  the  conquered 
lands  and  tryannise  over  the  subject  peoples.  .  .  . 

Elsewhere  I  have  spoken  of  the  nations  of  Europe  as 

a  hundred  million  pagans  masquerading  as  Christians. 

Not  unfrequently  in  private  intercourse  I  have  found 

myself  trying  to  convert  Christians  to  Christianity,  but 

121 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

have  invariably  failed.  The  truth  is  that  priests  and 
people  alike,  while  taking  their  nominal  creed  from  the 
New  Testament,  take  their  real  creed  from  Homer.  Not 
Christ,  but  Achilles  is  their  ideal.  One  day  in  the  week 
they  profess  the  creed  of  forgiveness,  and  six  days  in 
the  week  they  inculcate  and  practice  the  creed  of  revenge. 
On  Sunday  they  promise  to  love  their  neighbours  as 
themselves,  and  on  Monday  treat  with  utter  scorn  any 
one  who  proposes  to  act  out  that  promise  in  dealing  with 
inferior  peoples.  Nay,  they  have  even  intensified  the 
spirit  of  revenge  inherited  from  barbarians.  For, 
whereas  the  law  between  hostile  tribes  of  savages  is  life 
for  life,  the  law  of  the  so-called  civilised  in  dealing  with 
savages  is — for  one  life  many  lives.  Not  only  do  I  feel 
perpetually  angered  by  this  hypocrisy  which  daily  says 
one  thing  and  does  the  opposite  thing,  but  I  also  feel 
perpetually  angered  by  it  as  being  diametrically  opposed 
to  human  progress ;  since  all  further  advance  depends  on 
the  decline  of  militancy  and  rise  of  industrialism.  .  .  . 
But  what  the  great  mass  of  the  civilised  peoples  in  their 
dealings  with  the  uncivilised  regard  as  glory,  I  regard 
as  shame. 

I  have  not  hesitated  to  offend  my  own  countrymen  by 
frequent  expressions  of  the  feelings  thus  indicated,  and 
I  do  not  at  all  hesitate  to  offend  the  French  in  the  same 
way.  If,  however,  it  is  a  question  of  translation  or  no 
translation — if  no  one  will  venture  to  offend  French 
susceptibilities  by  publishing  in  France  the  passage  in 
question,  then,  I  may  remark,  that  the  difficulty  may  be 
practically  overcome  by  omitting  the  sentence  and  put- 
ting a  number  of  asterisks  in  its  place.1 

To  mark  the  completion  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
the  editor  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  was  desirous  to 
have  an  article,  and  consulted  Spencer  as  to  the  choice 

1  M.  H.  de  Varigny  undertook  the  translation  of  this  Part,  as 
well  as  of  Professional  Institutions. 

122 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

of  a  writer.     Spencer  at  first  thought  of  Professor  Mas- 
son,  about  whom  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  Knowles: — 

The  only  difficulty  which  I  see  is  that  which  arises 
from  our  friendship,  which  has  lasted  now  for  five  and 
forty  years  and  from  which  some  bias  may  naturally 
result,  or  may  naturally  be  supposed  to  result.  In  fact, 
however,  I  think  that  both  he  and  I  are  quite  prepared 
to  say  what  we  think  of  one  another's  opinions  and  to 
accept  expressions  of  dissent  without  the  least  ruffling 
of  feeling.  Indeed  I  am  quite  prepared  for  marked 
divergences  from  my  views  in  some  directions.  He  may, 
for  instance,  fitly  comment  on  my  extreme  disregard  of 
all  authority  (a  trait  without  which,  indeed,  I  should 
never  have  done  what  I  have).  Again  he  may  say  with 
truth  that  I  undervalue  the  products  of  ancient  thought 
and  the  products  of  ancient  life  in  general.  Then,  too, 
there  is  the  fact  that  I  ignore  utterly  the  personal  ele- 
ment in  history,  and,  indeed,  show  little  respect  for 
history  altogether  as  it  is  ordinarily  conceived. 

To  DAVID  MASSON. 

17  January,  1897. 

The  more  I  think  of  it  the  less  I  like  it.  It  is  clear  to 
me  that  you  would  be  continually  hampered  by  the 
thought  of  saying  too  much  or  too  little;  and  it  would 
be  disagreeable  to  me  to  have  things  said  under  either 
an  actual  or  a  supposed  bias.  All  things  considered,  I 
think  it  would  be  best  if  you  will  regard  the  suggestion 
as  not  having  been  made. 

The  name  of  Alfred  W.  Benn  has  occurred  to  me  as 
that  of  a  fit  man.  He  is  entirely  unknown  to  me,  and, 
judging  from  what  I  have  seen  of  his  writing  in  the 
Academy  and  Mind,  is  quite  competent. 

The  editor  acquiesced  in  the  suggestion  as  to  Mr.  Benn 
on  condition  that  Spencer  would  look  through  the  article 
123 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

when  it  was  finished,  and  if  satisfied,  would  give  it  a 
sort  of  formal  approval,  to  be  printed  with  it.  This 
Spencer  refused  to  do.  The  editor  then  gave  way.  But, 
when  in  the  spring  of  1899  the  article  was  finished,  he 
raised  objections  on  the  ground  that  it  did  not  fulfil  the 
condition  of  being  "  understanded  of  the  people,"  and 
notwithstanding  repeated  remonstrances  from  Spencer, 
declined  to  publish  it.  Spencer  was  greatly  annoyed: 
all  the  more  so  seeing  that  the  proposal  for  an  article 
had  emanated  from  the  editor  and  not  from  him.  Had 
he  been  told  at  the  very  outset  that  the  article  must  be 
written  so  that  the  man  in  the  street  could  understand 
it,  and  that  it  must  bear  on  its  face  some  mark  of  his 
approval,  Spencer  would  not  have  recommended  Mr. 
Benn  or  any  other  person.  ' '  But  then, ' '  says  Mr.  Benn 
in  a  letter  to  the  present  writer,  "  I  should  never  have 
known  Mr.  Spencer's  good  opinion  of  me  nor  have  had 
the  advantage  of  his  personal  acquaintance. ' ' 1 

When  informing  Spencer  that  the  article  was  finished 
Mr.  Benn  raised  some  questions  that  had  occurred  to 
him  in  the  course  of  his  writing. 

To  ALFRED  W.  BENN. 

27  March,  1899. 

The  unanswerable  questions  you  raise  are,  I  think, 
further  illustrations  of  the  muddle  which  results  when 
we  attempt  any  solution  of  ultimate  questions. 

The  idea  of  Cause  is  itself  an  entirely  relative  idea, 
and  being  so,  is  in  the  last  resort  inapplicable  to  the  re- 
lation between  phenomena  and  that  which  transcends 
phenomena,  however  needful  it  may  seem  to  us  to  use 

1  Though  Spencer  wished  to  see  the  article  published  elsewhere, 
it  has,  in  point  of  fact,  never  appeared. 

124 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

the  word  in  that  relation.  Cause  in  our  conception  has 
for  its  ultimate  symbol  the  relation  in  consciousness  be- 
tween the  sense  of  effort  and  any  change  which  we  pro- 
duce by  effort;  and  we  use  that  subjective  relation  as  a 
symbol  for  all  objective  relations  of  Cause,  and  when 
attempting  to  pass  the  limit,  thought  rushes  out  to  form 
a  relation  between  phenomena  and  that  which  transcends 
them,  and  inevitably  carries  with  it  this  same  conception 
of  Cause.  But  inevitably  it  is  a  symbolic  conception, 
and  much  as  it  seems  needful  for  us  to  think  of  the 
Unknowable  as  Cause,  yet  clearly  our  conception  of 
Cause,  being  in  its  origin  subjective  and  symbolic,  is 
essentially  inapplicable. 

But  there  is  even  a  still  deeper  reply,  namely,  that 
the  very  idea  of  explanation  is  out  of  place.  I  have  re- 
peatedly, when  dwelling  on  the  matter  and  feeling  at 
once  the  need  for  explanation  and  yet  the  conviction 
that  no  explanation  is  possible,  ended  in  the  thought 
that  the  very  idea  of  explanation  is  irrelevant.  For 
what  is  explanation?  That,  too,  is  a  purely  relative 
conception,  which,  if  we  analyse  it,  implies  in  every  case 
the  interpretation  of  a  more  special  truth  in  terms  of 
a  more  general  truth;  and  the  making  of  explanation 
behind  explanation  ends  in  reducing  all  special  truths 
to  cases  of  the  most  general  truth.  But  now,  what  hap- 
pens if  we  carry  out  this  definition  of  explanation  into 
the  relation  between  the  Knowable  and  the  Unknowable  ? 
The  explanation  of  that  relation  would  be  to  include  it 
along  with  other  relations  in  a  more  general  relation; 
but  where  is  there  a  more  general  relation  than  that 
between  the  Knowable  and  the  Unknowable?  There  is 
none.  That  is  to  say,  the  idea  of  explanation  is  ex- 
cluded. 


When  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Library  of  Political 
Science,  connected  with  the  London  School  of  Economics 
and  Political  Science,  requested  him  to  present  his  works 
125 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

to  the  Library  he  not  only  embraced  the  opportunity  of 
repeating  his  well-known  views  about  Free  Libraries,  but 
took  occasion  to  call  in  question  the  soundness  of  the 
policy  pursued  in  the  British  Library  of  Political 
Science. 

To  W.  A.  S.  HEWINS. 

24  March,  1897. 

From  time  to  time  I  have  had  various  applications 
akin  to  the  one  you  make  and  have  in  all  cases  declined 
compliance.  I  disapprove  of  free  libraries  altogether, 
the  British  Museum  Library  included,  believing  that  in 
the  long  run  they  are  mischievous  rather  than  beneficial ; 
as  we  see  clearly  in  the  case  of  Municipal  and  local  Free 
Libraries  which,  instead  of  being  places  for  study,  have 
become  places  for  reading  trashy  novels,  worthies? 
papers,  and  learning  the  odds.  I  no  more  approve  of 
Free  Libraries  than  I  approve  of  Free  Bakeries.  Food 
for  the  mind  should  no  more  be  given  gratis  than  food 
for  the  body  should  be  given  gratis.  The  whole  scheme 
of  public  instruction,  be  it  in  Free  Libraries  or  by  State 
Education,  is  socialistic,  and  I  am  profoundly  averse  to 
socialism  in  every  form. 

Moreover,  through  the  prospectus  you  send  me  there 
obviously  runs  the  idea  that  political  science  is  to  be 
based  upon  an  exhaustive  accumulation  of  details  of  all 
orders,  derived  from  all  sources — parliamentary  papers, 
reports  of  commissions,  and  all  the  details  of  administra- 
tion from  various  countries  and  colonies.  I  hold,  con- 
trariwise, that  political  science  is  smothered  in  such  a 
mass  of  details,  the  data  for  true  conclusions  being  rela- 
tively broad  and  accessible. 

The  institution  will  be  used  by  those  who  have  in  view 
the  extension  of  State  agencies.  Alike  from  what  I 
know  of  its  inception  and  from  what  I  now  see  of  it,  I 
am  convinced  that  it  will  be  an  appliance  not  for  the 
diffusion  of  political  science  but  for  the  diffusion  of 
political  quackery. 

126 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

When  a  similar  request  was  made  in  1898  on  behalf 
of  the  Ruskin  Hall,  Oxford,  he  declined  under  a  mis- 
apprehension as  to  the  aims  of  the  Hall.  "  I  am  pro- 
foundly averse  to  the  teachings  of  Ruskin  alike  in  social 
affairs  in  general  and  even  to  a  large  extent  in  art.  I 
must  decline  doing  anything  that  may  directly  or  in- 
directly conduce  to  the  spread  of  his  influence." 

Misconceptions  with  respect  to  isolated  opinions  of 
such  a  voluminous  writer  as  Spencer  were  to  be  expected, 
but  the  general  drift  of  his  doctrines  ought  to  have  been 
well  understood  by  this  time. 


To  M.  W.  KEATINGE. 

13  April,  1897. 

I  fear  I  cannot  give  you  any  dictum  to  serve  your 
purpose,  for  my  opinions  are  directly  at  variance  with 
those  you  suppose. 

There  is  a  mania  everywhere  for  uniformity ;  and  cen- 
tralised teaching  of  teachers  is  manifestly  in  the  direc- 
tion of  uniformity.  Throughout  all  organised  existence 
variety  tends  to  life,  uniformity  tends  to  death.  Com- 
petition in  methods  of  education  is  all-essential  and  any- 
thing that  tends  to  diminish  competition  will  be  detri- 
mental. 

Your  notion  of  restrictions  put  upon  the  teaching  pro- 
fession is  absolutely  at  variance  with  the  views  I  hold. 
It  is  trade-unionism  in  teaching — it  is  a  reversion  to  the 
ancient  condition  of  guilds.  It  is  a  limitation  of  indi- 
vidual freedom.  It  is  part  of  a  general  regime  which 
I  utterly  detest. 

If,  as  you  apparently  indicate,  raising  the  status  of 

teachers  and  giving  them  better  pay  implies  increase  of 

taxation,  general  or  local,  then  you  may  judge  how  far 

I  approve  of  it  when  I  tell  you  that,  from  my  very  earli- 

127 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

est  days  down  to  the  present  time,  I  have  been  a  per- 
sistent opponent  of  all  State-education. 


That  he  no  longer  looked  upon  his  London  house  as 
his  home  may  be  gathered  from  the  following. 


To  Miss 


1  April,  1897. 

For  practical  purposes,  as  at  present  carried  on,  the 
establishment  is  much  more  yours  than  mine.  During 
my  long  absences,  now  covering  half  the  year,  the  house 
is  occupied  by  the  family,  yourselves  and  rela- 
tives ;  and  when  I  am  at  home  the  social  intercourse  and 
the  administration  give  the  impression  that  64,  Avenue 

Road  is  the  residence  of  the  Misses  ,  where  Mr. 

Spencer  resides  when  he  is  in  town.  .  .  . 

All  things  considered  I  do  not  desire  any  longer  to 
maintain  our  relations.  .  .  .  On  estimating  the  advan- 
tages I  derive  from  the  presence  of  yourself  and  your 
sisters  in  the  house,  I  find  them  but  small — not  by  any 
means  great  enough  to  counterbalance  the  disadvantages. 

Please  therefore  accept  this  letter  as  an  intimation 
that  the  residence  of  yourself  and  your  sisters  with  me 
will  end  on  the  first  of  July  next. 


A  good  deal  of  correspondence  passed  in  May  and 
June  between  him  and  a  lady  at  whose  house  he  spent 
rather  less  than  a  fortnight  as  a  "  paying  guest." 
Through  the  medium  of  an  advertisement  what  seemed 
like  a  rural  paradise  had  been  discovered.  Things  went 
on  fairly  well  for  a  week,  save  for  an  occasional  murmur ; 
but  within  a  few  days  he  left.  This  experience  as  a 
"  paying  guest  "  seems  to  have  prompted  the  following 
letter. 

128 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

To  MRS.  LYNN  LINTON. 

15  June,  1897. 

Let  me  suggest  to  you  a  work  which  might  fitly  be  the 
crowning  work  of  your  life — a  work  on  ' '  Good  and  Bad 
Women." 

You  have  rather  obtained  for  yourself  the  reputation 
for  holding  a  brief  for  men  versus  women,  whereas  I 
rather  think  the  fact  is  that  you  simply  aim  to  check 
that  over-exaltation  of  women  which  has  long  been  domi- 
nant, and  which  is  receiving  an  eclatante  illustration 
in  a  recent  essay  by  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green,  which  is  com- 
mented upon  in  this  week's  Spectator. 

The  flattering  of  women  has  been,  one  might  almost 
say,  a  chief  business  of  poets,  and  women  have  most  of 
them  very  readily  accepted  the  incense  with  little  qual- 
ification; and  this  has  been  so  perpetual  and  has  been 
so  habitually  accepted  by  men  as  to  have  caused  a  per- 
verted opinion.  .  .  . 

The  natures  of  men  and  women  are  topics  of  continual 
discussion,  but  entirely  of  random  discussion,  with  no 
analysis  and  no  collection  of  evidence  and  balancing  of 
results. 

If  you  entertain  my  proposal  I  should  like  very  well 
by  and  by  to  make  some  suggestions  as  to  modes  of  en- 
quiry and  modes  of  comparison.1 

In  July  he  went  to  Boughton  Monchelsea,  near  Maid- 
stone,  where  he  stayed  till  September.  On  returning  to 
town  he  took  chambers  in  Park  Place,  St.  James's,  to  be 
near  the  Athenceum,  where  he  had  not  been  since  No- 
vember of  the  previous  year,  and  ' '  to  acquire  by  a  more 
enjoyable  life,  the  requisite  strength  for  driving  back- 
wards and  forwards  from  Avenue  Road."  After  three 
days  he  broke  down,  went  home  to  Avenue  Road,  and 

1  The  suggestion  apparently  led  to  nothing.  See  Life  of  Mrs. 
Lynn  Linton,  p.  329. 

129 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

did  not  again  leave  the  house  until  he  started  for  Brigh- 
ton in  October.  Considering  how  little  he  had  been  in 
London,  and  how  little  happiness  he  had  enjoyed  there 
during  recent  years,  one  may  wonder  why  he  continued 
to  keep  up  a  house  in  town.  The  explanation  lies  partly 
in  that  hopefulness  which  always  led  him  to  anticipate 
a  change  for  the  better,  and  partly  in  his  reluctance  to 
sever  his  connection  with  the  scene  of  his  literary  strug- 
gles and  successes — with  the  great  city  in  which  had 
been  kept  up  the  closest  friendships  of  his  life.  At 
length,  however,  the  final  step  was  taken.  "  The  pros- 
pect of  passing  my  last  days  monotonously  in  Avenue 
Road  has  become  a  dread  to  me,  and  I  have  decided  that 
they  may  be  passed  much  better  here  in  front  of  the  sea 
and  with  plenty  of  sun. ' '  He  moved  into  5,  Percival  Ter- 
race, Brighton,  soon  after  the  beginning  of  1898,  hoping, 
as  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Lecky,  that  his  London  friends  would 
use  his  house  as  an  hotel,  so  that  he  might  see  them  as 
often  as  possible.  His  first  concern  was  to  get  two 
ladies  to  complete  his  small  domestic  circle,  musical 
ability  being  an  essential  qualification  in  one  of  them. 
His  advertisement  for  either  two  sisters,  or  a  mother  and 
daughter,  resulted  in  adding  one  more  to  the  list  of  coin- 
cidences mentioned  in  the  Autobiography  (i.,  384,  526; 

ii.,  424).     Two  orphaned  sisters  of  the  name  of  D 

replied  to  his  advertisement.  Previously  to  this  Mrs. 
Briton  Riviere  had  recommended  two  sisters,  also  named 

D ;  and  he  naturally  concluded  that  the  ladies 

who  had  answered  his  advertisement  were  the  same  as 
those  recommended  by  Mrs.  Riviere.  "  I  should  fear 
that  these  young  ladies  being  orphans  may  have  tended 
rather  to  the  melancholy  than  to  the  joyous."  Mrs. 
130 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

Riviere  then  informed  him  that  the  ladies  she  had  rec- 
ommended were  not  orphans,  both  their  parents  being 
alive. 

To  MRS.  RIVIERE. 

29  January,  1898. 
In  reply  to  a  recent  advertisement  there  came  a  letter 

from  certain  two  Misses  D — proposing  to  accept  the 

position  I  offered.  Remembering  that  you  had  recom- 
mended certain  two  Misses  D —  — ,  the  conclusion  was 
drawn  without  hesitation  that  they  were  the  same  two. 
It  turns  out  to  be  otherwise.  The  two  who  replied  to 
my  advertisement  are  daughters  of  a  stockbroker  and 
are  orphans.  The  name  is  by  no  means  common.  Who 
would  have  supposed  that  there  should  be  bearing  that 
name  two  pairs  of  sisters  both  wishing  to  undertake 
similar  positions?  The  thing  would  be  considered  in  a 
fiction  as  absolutely  incredible. 

Throughout  1898,  and  well  into  the  spring  of  1899, 
his  domestic  circle  underwent  many  changes,  owing 
partly  to  his  wanting  "  a  combination  of  qualities  which 
is  not  very  common,"  as  several  of  his  friends  told  him. 
With  the  help  of  Mrs.  Charlton  Bastian  he  was  fortunate 
in  the  spring  of  1899  in  meeting  with  Miss  Key,  a  skilled 
musician,  whom  he  engaged  for  the  special  duty  of  play- 
ing the  piano,  which  he  liked  to  hear  played  several 
times  a  day;  the  piece  he  wished  to  be  played  being 
usually  selected  by  himself.  A  month  or  two  later  Miss 
Killick  took  over  the  duties  of  housekeeper.  These  two 
ladies  remained  with  him  till  his  death,  contributing  in 
no  small  degree  by  their  thoughtfulness  and  sympathy 
to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  his  closing  years. 

During  the  year  1898  he  had  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion to  clear  up  "  misrepresentations."  One  of  these 
131 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

was  contained  in  a  paragraph  in  Literature  for  January, 
announcing  that  a  forthcoming  work  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Mai- 
lock  would  point  out  "  how  Mr.  Spencer  embodies  and 
gives  fresh  life  to  the  fundamental  error  of  contempo- 
rary '  advanced  '  thinkers  in  defining  the  social  aggre- 
gate as  a  body  '  composed  of  approximately  equal 
units. '  ' '  Spencer  was  at  a  loss  to  know  where  Mr.  Mai- 
lock  had  found  "  a  passage  authorising  this  representa- 
tion." 

To  W.  H.  MALLOCK. 

30  January,  1898. 

After  much  seeking  I  have  discovered  one  of  the  pas- 
sages to  which  you  refer,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  its 
context  affords  no  justification  for  the  way  in  which  you 
interpret  it.  It  is  a  passage  on  p.  5  of  the  Principles 
of  Sociology,  in  which,  as  a  preliminary,  the  social  aggre- 
gate formed  by  social  insects  is  distinguished  from  a 
human  society,  because  it  is  in  reality  a  large  family 
and  because  it  is  "  not  a  union  among  like  individuals 
substantially  independent  of  one  another  in  parentage, 
and  approximately  equal  in  their  capacities."  If  here 
there  is  an  implied  conception  of  a  human  society,  the 
interpretation  of  the  words  is  to  be  taken  in  connexion 
with  the  contra-distinguished  society:  the  words  used 
should  be  understood  in  the  light  of  this  distinction.  A 
society  of  ants,  for  example,  consists  of  several  classes 
— perfect  males  and  females,  workers,  soldiers — and 
these  classes  differ  from  one  another  very  greatly  in  their 
structures  and  concomitant  capacities.  Obviously  the 
intention  is  to  distinguish  the  markedly  unequal  capaci- 
ties possessed  by  units  of  a  society  like  this  and  the 
approximately  equal  capacities  of  the  units  forming  a 
human  society;  and  surely  it  is  undeniable  that,  in  con- 
trast with  these  enormous  differences  in  capacity  among 
the  classes  of  ants,  the  differences  in  capacity  among 
132 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

human  beings  become  relatively  small ;  as  compared  with 
the  extremely  unlike  capacities  of  queens,  males,  soldiers 
and  workers  among  ants,  the  capacities  of  human  beings 
may  fitly  be  called  "  approximately  equal."  I  should 
have  thought  that  it  was  clear  that  only  when  drawing 
this  contrast  was  the  expression  ' '  approximately  equal  ' ' 
used,  and  that  the  word  "  approximately  "  is  in  that  re- 
lation quite  justifiable. 

That  your  interpretation  is  unwarranted  is  clearly 
enough  indicated  by  passages  in  the  Study  of  Sociology 
accompanying  those  you  refer  to,  and  is  quite  definitely 
excluded  by  large  parts  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology. 
In  the  Study  of  Sociology,  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  The 
Nature  of  the  Social  Science  "  .  .  .  [the  exposition] 
sufficiently  implies  recognition  of  the  effects  of  superi- 
ority and  inferiority  among  the  units,  for  how  can  there 
be  established  the  differences  referred  to  unless  because 
the  more  powerful  and  more  intelligent  rise  to  the  top? 
So  that  even  here  your  interpretation  is  tacitly  nega- 
tived ;  and  then  if  you  will  turn  to  the  Principles  of 
Sociology,  Part  V.,  treating  of  "  Political  Institutions," 
you  will  find  an  elaborate  exposition  still  more  rigor- 
ously excluding  it.  ... 

So  too  in  the  Principles  of  Ethics  you  will  see,  in  the 
division  entitled  "  Justice,"  a  variously-emphasised  as- 
sertion that  superiority  must  be  allowed  to  bring  to  its 
possessor  all  the  naturally-resulting  benefits,  and  inferi- 
ority the  naturally-resulting  evils.  Moreover,  you  will 
find  condemnation  of  the  socialistic  ideal,  with  which, 
apparently,  your  representation  indicated  in  Literature 
implies  my  sympathy. 

Apparently  this  did  not  convince  Mr.  Mallock,  who 
thought  the  great  man  theory  "  shows  itself  only  acci- 
dentally and  incidentally,  in  the  body  of  your  work.  I 
am  well  aware  that  your  sympathies  are  not  with  the 
Socialists;  but  I  confess  that  I  think  your  method  of 
133 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

merging  the  great  man  in  the  aggregate  of  conditions 
that  have  produced  him,  has  furnished  socialistic  theo- 
rists with  many  of  their  weapons."  He  returned  to  the 
charge  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  August ;  maintain- 
ing that  in  the  non-recognition  of  "  the  inequality  of 
individuals  as  a  cardinal  social  fact  "  "we  have  the 
secret  of  Mr.  Spencer's  defect  as  a  sociologist.  This 
great  fact  of  human  inequality,  instead  of  being  sys- 
tematically studied  by  him,  is  systematically  and  osten- 
tatiously ignored  by  him."  To  these  criticisms  Spen- 
cer replied  in  the  same  review  the  month  following. 

Another  "  misrepresentation  "  had  reference  to  the 
doctrine  of  animism,  Literature  representing  him  as  an 
adherent.  This  he  repudiated,  in  the  issue  of  February 
5,  showing  how  in  the  Data  of  Sociology  "  instead  of 
accepting  the  doctrine  of  animism,  I  have  not  only 
avowedly  rejected  it,  but  have,  throughout  the  successive 
parts  of  a  long  argument,  supplied  what  I  conceive  to 
be  direct  and  indirect  disproofs  of  it."  In  the  same 
periodical  (19  February),  he  endeavoured  to  remove  the 
perplexity  in  which  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  was  involved  in 
The  Making  of  Religion.  _  Under  the  name  of  Animism 
or  Fetichism  "  there  is  an  alleged  primordial  tendency 
in  the  human  mind  to  conceive  inanimate  things  as  ani- 
mated— as  having  animating  principles  or  spirits.  The 
essential  question  is:  has  the  primitive  man  an  innate 
tendency  thus  to  conceive  things  around?  Professor 
Tylor  says  Yes ;  I  say  No.  I  do  not  think  it  requires  any 
'  revised  terminology  '  to  make  this  difference  clear." 
The  matter  had  to  be  taken  up  again  in  July.  The 
Spectator  had  classed  him  as  one  of  those  who  believed 
that  superstitious  ideas  arose  from  "  the  universal  con- 
134 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

viction  or  feeling  that  all  things  in  Nature  are  endowed 
with  the  sentient  vitality  and  the -unruly  affections  of 
mankind."  "  I  entertain  no  such  belief,"  he  wrote  to 
the  editor.  "  This  ascription  to  me  ...  of  a  belief 
which  I  have  emphatically  rejected,  is  one  of  many  ex- 
amples showing  me  how  impossible  it  is  to  exclude  mis- 
understanding." 

The  war  between  the  United  States  and  Spain  was 
weighing  heavily  on  the  consciences  of  many  thoughtful 
Americans,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Moncure  Conway,  who 
asked  Spencer  whether  it  would  not  be  possible  to  form 
a  concert  of  eminent  men,  who,  whenever  a  peril  of  war 
arose,  should  meet  as  a  "  supreme  court  of  civilization  " 
and  determine  the  right  and  wrong,  before  any  declara- 
tion of  war  took  place. 

To  MONCURE  D.  CONWAY. 

17  July,  1898. 

I  sympathise  in  your  feelings  and  your  aims,  but  not 
in  your  hopes.  ...  In  people's  present  mood  nothing 
can  be  done  in  that  direction.. 

Now  that  the  white  savages  of  Europe  are  overrun- 
ning the  dark  savages  everywhere — now  that  the  Euro- 
pean nations  are  vying  with  one  another  in  political 
burglaries — now  that  we  have  entered  upon  an  era  of 
social  cannibalism  in  which  the  strong  nations  are  de- 
vouring the  weaker — now  that  national  interests,  na- 
tional prestige,  pluck,  and  so  forth  are  alone  thought  of, 
and  equity  has  utterly  dropped  out  of  thought,  while 
rectitude  is  scorned  as  "  unctuous,"  it  is  useless  to 
resist  the  wave  of  barbarism.  There  is  a  bad  time  com- 
ing, and  civilised  mankind  will  (morally)  be  uncivilised 
before  civilisation  can  again  advance. 

Such  a  body  as  that  which  you  propose,  even  could  its 
135 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

members  agree,  would  be  pooh-poohed  as  sentimental 
and  visionary.  The  universal  aggressiveness  and  uni- 
versal culture  of  blood-thirst  will  bring  back  military 
despotism,  out  of  which  after  many  generations  partial 
freedom  may  again  emerge. 

The  reader  will  remember  how,  when  the  Anti-Aggres- 
sion excitement  was  on  him  in  1882,  he  had  endeavoured 
to  induce  Miss  Bevington  to  put  the  indignation  he  felt 
into  verse.  The  idea  occurred  to  him  again  this  year. 

To  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT. 

1  October,  1898. 

For  some  years  I  have  been  casting  about  for  a  poet 
who  might  fitly  undertake  a  subject  I  very  much  want 
to  see  efficiently  dealt  with.  At  one  time  I  thought  of 
proposing  it  to  Mr.  Robert  Buchanan,  who  in  respect 
of  vigour  of  expression  and  strength  of  moral  indigna- 
tion seemed  appropriate,  but  I  concluded  that  the  gen- 
eral feeling  with  regard  to  him  would  prevent  a  favour- 
able reception — would  in  fact  tend  very  much  to  cancel 
the  effect  to  be  produced.  Afterwards  the  name  of  Mr. 
William  Watson  occurred  to  me  as  one  who  had  shown 
feelings  of  the  kind  I  wished  to  see  expressed.  But,  ad- 
mirable as  much  of  his  poetry  is,  the  element  of  power 
is  not  marked:  he  does  not  display  a  due  amount  of 
burning  sarcasm.  Your  recent  letter  in  the  Times,  and 
since  then  a  review  in  the  Academy  in  which  there  were 
quotations  from  your  poem  "  The  Wind  and  the  Whirl- 
wind," lead  me  to  hope  that  you  may  work  out  the  idea 
I  refer  to. 

This  idea  is  suggested  by  the  first  part  of  Goethe's 
' '  Faust  ' ' — The  Prologue  in  Heaven,  I  think  it  is  called. 
In  this,  if  I  remember  rightly  (it  is  now  some  50  years 
since  I  read  it),  Mephistopheles  obtains  permission  to 
tempt  Faust — the  drama  being  thereupon  initiated.  In- 
stead of  this  I  suggest  an  interview  and  dialogue  in 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

which  Satan  seeks  authority  to  find  some  being  more 
wicked  than  himself,  with  the  understanding  that,  if  he 
succeeds,  this  being  shall  take  his  place.  The  test  of 
wickedness  is  to  be  the  degree  of  disloyalty — the  degree 
of  rebellion  against  divine  government. 

6  October. — Thank  you  for  your  letter.  I  am  heartily 
glad  to  find  you  entertain  my  suggestion.  .  .  . 

My  beliefs  are  pretty  much  as  pessimistic  as  those  you 
express — in  respect  at  least  of  the  approaching  condition 
of  mankind;  but  holding  though  I  do  that  we  are  com- 
mencing a  long  course  of  re-barbarisation  from  which 
the  reaction  may  take  very  long  in  coming,  I  nevertheless 
hold  that  a  reaction  will  come,  and  look  forward  with 
hope  to  a  remote  future  of  a  desirable  kind,  to  be  reached 
after  numerous  movements  of  progress  and  retrogression. 
Did  I  think  that  men  were  likely  to  remain  in  the  far 
future  anything  like  what  they  now  are,  I  should  con- 
template with  equanimity  the  sweeping  away  of  the 
whole  race. 

5  November. — How  to  put  the  greatest  amount  of 
feeling  and  idea  in  the  shortest  space  is  the  problem  to 
be  solved  by  every  writer,  more  especially  by  the  poet, 
for  rightly  conceived  (not  as  by  Browning)  poetry  is  a 
vehicle  in  which  the  friction  is  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
and  of  course  everything  which  is  superfluous  adds  to 
the  friction.  I  have  often  thought  that  nearly  all  our 
poets  would  have  greatly  benefited  by  restriction  to  one- 
fourth  the  space.  Works  of  art  in  general  would  in 
nearly  all  cases  profit  by  restraint.  Much  architecture 
and  much  internal  decoration  is  spoiled  by  excess,  and 
nearly  every  painter  puts  too  much  into  his  pictures. 
Composers,  too,  even  the  highest  of  them,  as  Beethoven, 
often  spoil  their  works  by  needless  expansion.  To  the 
artist  each  new  idea  seems  so  good  that  he  cannot  make 
up  his  mind  to  leave  it  out,  and  so  more  or  less  sacrifices 
the  effect  of  the  whole  to  the  effect  of  the  part. 
137 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Before  the  appearance  of  Satan  Absolved — the  title 
chosen  for  his  poem  by  Mr.  Scawen  Blunt — Spencer 
wrote : — 

To  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT. 

23  June,  1899. 

I  rejoice  to  hear  that  the  poem  is  finished,  and  that  its 
publication  is  not  far  off. 

Of  course  I  feel  honoured  by  your  proposal  to  preface 
some  words  of  dedication  to  me,  and  accept  with  pleas- 
ure. Please  do  not,  however,  in  any  introductory  words, 
indicate  the  origin  of  the  idea  which  the  poem  elaborates. 
You  will  perhaps  be  surprised  by  this  request  until  you 
understand  my  reason. 

Already  my  general  views,  touching  as  they  do  in 
many  places  upon  religious  opinions,  have  from  time  to 
time  exposed  me  to  vilification  both  here  and  in  Amer- 
ica, and  have,  in  consequence,  raised  impediments  to  the 
wider  diffusion  of  the  general  philosophical  views  which 
I  have  set  forth,  and  have  in  various  ways  diminished 
both  the  circulation  and  the  influence  of  the  books.  Such 
being  the  case  I  do  not  want  to  again  rouse,  even  more 
strongly  than  hitherto,  the  odium  theologicum  and  to 
give  it  a  further  handle  for  attacks,  not  only  upon  my 
declared  religious  opinions,  but  also  upon  the  system  of 
thought  associated  with  them,  but  which  is  in*  reality 
independent  of  them.  It  is  this  contemplation  not  of 
the  personal,  but  of  the  impersonal  effects,  which  makes 
me  wish  not  to  arouse  still  greater  antagonism  than  I 
have  already  done.  A  further  obstacle  to  the  spread  of 
evolutionary  views  would,  I  think,  be  a  greater  evil  than 
any  benefit  to  be  gained. 

On  receiving  a  copy  of  the  poem,  he  wrote  in  haste  to 
beg  Mr.  Blunt  to  omit  a  passage  on  the  first  page.     The 
description  of  the  ante-chamber  of  heaven  ' '  savours  too 
138 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

much  of  the  earth  earthy,  .  .  .  and  puts  the  poem  in  too 
low  a  key." 

To  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT. 

28  October,  1899. 

Let  me  first  apologise  for  my  brusquely-expressed  let- 
ter written  immediately  on  receipt  of  Satan  Ab- 
solved. .  .  . 

I  did  not  at  first  recognise  the  fact  that,  by  calling 
the  poem  a  "  Victorian  Mystery,"  you  intended  to  sug- 
gest some  analogy  to  the  mysteries  of  Medieval  days, 
and  that  you  had  adopted  a  mode  of  treatment  implied 
by  this  analogy.  Hence  that  assimilation  of  the  divine 
and  the  human,  which  characterised  the  mystery-plays, 
had  not  been  understood  by  me  as  sequent  upon  the 
adoption  of  the  earlier  mode  of  thought,  and  as  a  result 
gave  me  a  sense  of  incongruity.  Though  I  now  see  that 
the  adoption  of  this  ancient  mode  of  thought  gives  con- 
sistency to  the  work,  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  we  (or  at 
least  cultured  people)  have  so  far  travelled  away  from 
that  mode  of  thought  that  the  revival  of  it  will  be  apt 
to  excite  in  many  readers  an  internal  protest. 

My  chief  difficulty,  however,  in  forming  a  judgment 
arises,  as  I  now  see,  from  the  wide  difference  between 
the  general  conception  as  embodied  by  you  and  the  con- 
ception which  I  had  myself  formed  and  suggested.  .  .  . 

This  much,  however,  I  can  say  with  all  sincerity — 
that  I  like  it  much  better  on  a  second  reading  than  on 
the  first;  and  this  I  think  is  a  marked  evidence  of  its 
goodness.  Unquestionably,  Satan's  description  of  Man 
and  his  doings  is  given  with  great  power,  and  ought  to 
bring  to  their  senses  millions  of  hypocrites  who  profess 
the  current  religion.  I  wish  you  would  emphasise  more 
strongly  the  gigantic  lie  daily  enacted — the  contrast  be- 
tween the  Christian  professions  and  the  pagan  actions, 
and  the  perpetual  insult  to  one  they  call  Omniscient  in 
thinking  that  they  can  compound  for  atrocious  deeds  by 
laudatory  words. 

139 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

During  the  winter  of  1898-99  he  wrote  two  postscripts 
to  Part  VII.  of  the  Psychology:  one  on  Idealism  and 
Realism;  the  other  in  reply  to  a  criticism  of  the  late 
Professor  Green,  whose  article  in  the  Contemporary  Re- 
view for  December,  1 877,  had  recently  been  republished.1 
In  addition  to  these  he  wrote  a  chapter  on  "  The  Filia- 
tion of  Ideas,"  which  he  stereotyped  and  put  away  for 
future  use.2  A  renewed  attempt  to  introduce  the  metric 
system  suggested  the  expediency  of  issuing  a  second 
edition  of  the  brochure,  "  Against  the  Metric  System," 
and  again  distributing  it  among  members  of  Parliament. 
Under  the  name  "  A  Citizen  "  he  wrote  to  the  Times 
four  letters,  which  were  included  in  the  pamphlet. 

With  all  his  disregard  for  public  opinion  as  far  as  con- 
cerned his  philosophical  doctrines — notwithstanding  the 
indifference  or  even  satisfaction  with  which  he  contem- 
plated the  shocks  he  occasionally  gave  to  current  ortho- 
doxy, whether  scientific  or  religious — he  was  extremely 
sensitive  to  criticism  of  his  character,  and  had  a  rooted 
dislike  to  his  private  life  and  conversation  being  treated 
as  public  property.  He  assumed  that  those  who  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  his  intimacy  would  respect  the 
unwritten  law  of  private  intercourse  by  scrupulously 
refraining  from  making  public  the  trivial  no  less  than 
the  important  matters  of  his  daily  life.  Himself  taking 
little  interest  in  personalities  and  gossip,  he  never 
dreamt  that  unpremeditated  remarks  made  in  the  hear- 
ing of  those  living  under  the  same  roof,  might  be  pub- 
lished abroad,  or  that  the  petty  details  of  domestic  life 
might  have  their  pettiness  intensified  by  being  taken 

1  Principles  of  Psychology,   ii.,   505  £-505 IT. 
*  Reprinted  in  this  volume  as  Appendix  B. 

140 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

out  of  their  appropriate  setting  and  held  up  as  a  public 
spectacle.  He  had  a  rude  awakening  in  the  spring  of 
]899.  Soon  after  the  announcement  of  his  forthcoming 
book  on  Spencer,  Mr.  Hector  Macpherson  received  from 
a  lady  quite  unknown  to  him,  an  offer  of  "  Reminis- 
cences of  Herbert  Spencer."  She  and  her  father  had 
lived  at  38,  Queen's  Gardens  during  part  of  the  time 
Spencer  was  there,  and  had  been  in  the  habit  of  taking 
notes  of  Spencer's  sayings  and  doings,  and  these  notes 
she  now  offered  for  ten  guineas,  adding  that  if  they  were 
not  accepted  she  could  readily  find  a  publisher  later  on. 
On  hearing  of  this,  and  on  the  advice  of  his  solicitors 
that  he  had  no  power  to  stop  the  publication  of  state- 
ments concerning  himself,  he  requested  Mr.  Macpherson 
to  offer  ten  guineas  for  the  MS.,  provided  the  lady  would 
undertake  not  to  publish  any  other  version  of  the  rem- 
iniscences. A  legal  minute  of  agreement  and  sale  was 
drawn  up  and  signed,  and  in  due  course  Spencer  ob- 
tained possession  of  the  manuscript. 

To  HECTOR  MACPHERSON. 

25  April,  1899. 

You  bargained  better  than  you  knew.  There  are 
many  absolutely  false  statements — false  to  the  extent  of 
absurdity.  Here  is  a  quotation : — ' '  Often  ( ! )  invited 
to  dine  at  Marlborough  House,  but  would  never  go." 
Imagine  the  Prince  of  Wales  often  repeating  his  invita- 
tions after  being  declined !  The  statement  is  absolutely 
baseless.  Another  statement  is: — "  Gladstone  very 
often  came  to  breakfast,  but  this  was  before  the  Home 
Rule  affair;  also  George  Eliot,  Darwin,  Tyndall." 
Again  absolutely  false.  With  no  one  of  the  four  did  I 
ever  exchange  breakfast  civilities  save  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and  instead  of  his  often  breakfasting  with  me  I  some 
141 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

three  or  four  times  breakfasted  with  him.  .  .  .  Some  of 

Mr. 's  quotations  from  his  diary  are,  however,  of  a 

libellous  kind. 

Spencer's  first  idea  had  been  that  the  lady  should  be 
informed  by  the  firm  of  lawyers  who  had  the  matter  in 
hand  that  the  publication  of  these  reminiscences  would 
render  her  liable  to  prosecution.  But  in  the  end  he 
took  a  view  of  the  matter  which  it  seems  a  pity  he  did 
not  take  at  the  outset — to  treat  the  proposed  publication 
with  indifference,  seeing  that  it  contained  its  own  anti- 
dote. 

The  health  of  Mr.  Grant  Allen  was  giving  Spencer 
much  concern,  his  sympathies  as  usual  leading  him  to 
try  to  trace  the  evil  to  its  source.  A  visit  of  some  dura- 
tion from  his  friend  afforded  opportunities  for  earnest 
entreaties.  These  were  afterwards  enforced  by  appeals 
to  Mr.  Grant  Allen's  scientific  knowledge. 

To  GRANT  ALLEN. 

BRIGHTON,  2  June,  1899. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  that  your  wife  thinks  that  you  have 
profited  by  your  stay  here.  I  hope  that  the  corner  may 
be  by-and-by  turned  completely. 

That  it  may  be  turned  completely  it  is  clear  that  you 
must  improve  your  mastication.  ...  If  I  had  to  teach 
children  I  should  give  them  among  other  things  a  lesson 
on  the  importance  of  mastication,  and  should  illustrate 
it  by  taking  a  small  iron  nail  and  weighing  against  it 
some  pinches  of  iron  filings  till  the  two  balanced;  then, 
putting  them  into  two  glasses,  pouring  into  each  a  quan- 
tity of  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  leaving  them  to  stir  the 
two  from  time  to  time,  and  showing  them  that  whereas 
the  iron  filings  quickly  dissolve,  the  dissolving  of  the 
nail  would  be  a  business  of  something  like  a  week.  This 
142 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

would  impress  on  them  the  importance  of  reducing  food 
to  small  fragments.  That  you,  a  scientific  man,  should 
not  recognise  this  is  to  me  astonishing.1 

When  Mr.  Grant  Allen  died  in  October  following, 
Spencer  lost  one  of  his  ablest  and  most  chivalrous  allies. 
Writing  in  June,  1900,  to  Mr.  Edward  Clodd  on  receiv- 
ing a  copy  of  the  Memoir,  he  said: 

I  was  often  surprised  by  his  versatility,  but  now  that 
the  facts  are  brought  together,  it  is  clear  to  me  that  I 
was  not  sufficiently  surprised.  One  of  the  traits  on 
which  I  should  myself  have  commented  had  I  written 
about  him  was  his  immense  quickness  of  perception. 
He  well  deserved  this  biography. 

The  correspondence  that  follows  with  Mr.  (afterwards 
Sir)  Leslie  Stephen  regarding  the  formation  of  an  Ethi- 
cal Lecturers  Fund  has  an  interest  apart  from  its  imme- 
diate purpose.  It  throws  light  upon  the  question  how, 
with  his  professed  dislike  to  reading,  he  was  able  to 
amass  the  immense  amount  of  information  contained  in 
his  earlier  books.  This  profusion  of  exemplification  and 
illustration  seems  inconsistent  with  his  own  repeated 
statements  that  he  was  constitutionally,  and  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  idle — that  he  was  an  impatient  reader,  and 
actually  read  little.  In  one  of  the  following  letters  to 
Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  he  says  that  when  preparing  to  write 
he  read  up  in  those  directions  in  which  he  expected  to 
find  materials  for  his  own  generalisations,  not  caring 
for  the  generalisations  of  others.  Under  the  guidance 
of  a  generalisation  he  picked  out  the  relevant  material, 

1  Mastication  formed  the  subject  of  a  brief  essay  he  began 
to  dictate  a  few  weeks  before  his  death,  but  did  not  finish. 

143 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

ignoring  the  irrelevant ;  as  a  lawyer  restricts  his  reading 
in  preparing  his  brief.  That  he  lost  by  this  restricted 
reading  cannot  be  doubted.  It  gave  colour  to  the  not 
ill-natured  remark  of  one  of  his  frienfls:  "  Scratch 
Spencer,  and  you  come  upon  ignorance."  But,  taking 
all  in  all,  it  may  be  said  that  what  he  lost  through  lack 
of  diligence  in  acquisition  he  made  up  for,  or  more  than 
made  up  for,  by  the  continuous  exercise  of  his  wonderful 
gift  of  organisation.  If  the  word  industrious  can  be  so 
applied,  then,  as  a  thinker  Spencer  was  pre-eminently 
industrious,  his  mind  was  incessantly  occupied  with  the 
logical  relations  of  things.  It  was  the  firm  grasp  he  had 
of  these  logical  relations  that  enabled  him  to  retain  com- 
plete mastery  over  the  details,  marshalling  them  at  his 
bidding;  giving,  perhaps,  also  the  impression  of  having 
unfathomable  sources  of  information  from  which  to 
draw.  His  literary  industry  was  untiring.  Not  only 
were  his  published  writings  voluminous,  but  his  corre- 
spondence was  very  great.  The  limit  imposed  on  the 
writer  of  this  volume  has  rendered  it  impossible  to  re- 
produce more  than  a  small  fraction  of  his  letters. 

To  LESLIE  STEPHEN. 

28   June,   1899. 

When  I  received  the  circular  asking  for  aid  in  raising 
the  Ethical  Lecturers  Fund  I  at  once  decided  to  con- 
tribute. On  re-reading  the  prospectus,  however,  I  was 
brought  to  a  pause  by  the  paragraph  requiring  a  Univer- 
sity Honours  degree  as  the  minimum  intellectual  equip- 
ment. If  John  Mill  had  been  alive  and  a  young  man, 
his  candidature  would  have  been  negatived  by  this  re- 
quirement. And  were  I  a  young  man  and  proposed  to 
adopt  the  career  of  ethical  lecturer,  my  candidature 
also  would  be  negatived. 

144 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

30  June. — The  expression  which  you  underline  does 
not  seem  to  me  to  change  the  essential  meaning  of  the 
passage  I  referred  to.  It  implies  that  there  shall  be  a 
standard  of  education  substantially  like  that  which  a 
university  gives. 

I  do  not  know  what  might  have  been  the  case  with 
Mill.  I  can  only  say  that  were  I  young  and  a  candi- 
date, the  regulation  would  rigorously  exclude  me.  Not 
only  could  I  have  shown  no  education  equivalent  to  a 
university  honours  degree,  but  I  could  have  shown  none 
equivalent  to  the  lowest  degree  a  university  gives.  .  .  . 

Naturally,  such  being  my  position,  I  demur  to  the  test 
specified.  Moreover,  not  on  personal  grounds  only,  but 
on  general  grounds,  I  demur  to  the  assumption  that  a 
university  career  implies  a  fit  preparation. 

FROM  LESLIE  STEPHEN. 

1  July,  1899. 
You  say  that  when  you  were  young  you  could  not  have 

shown  an  education  "  equivalent  to  the  lowest  degree  a 
university  gives. "  It  is  not  for  me  to  dispute  that  state- 
ment. I  am,  however,  sure  that  when  you  first  published 
books  upon  ethical  questions,  you  had  somehow  or  other 
attained  an  amount  of  knowledge  upon  such  topics  very 
much  superior  to  that  of  the  average  "  honour  man," 
who  satisfies  the  examiners  in  his  department  of  study. 
.  .  .  We  never  thought  of  suggesting  that  candidates 
should  have  passed  any  particular  course,  but  that  their 
general  hold  of  intellectual  culture  should  be  equal  to 
that  implied  by  capacity  to  fulfil  the  ordinary  conditions 
of  university  success. 

To  LESLIE  STEPHEN. 

2  July,  1899. 

Your  assumption  is  a  very  natural  one,  but  it  is  ut- 
terly mistaken.    When  Social  Statics  was  written  I  had 
none  of  that  preparation  which  you  suppose. 

145 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

When  with  my  uncle,  from  thirteen  to  sixteen,  my 
acquirements  were  limited  to  Euclid,  algebra,  trigo- 
nometry, mechanics,  and  the  first  part  of  Newton's  Prin- 
cipia.  To  this  equipment  I  never  added.  During  my 
eight  years  of  engineering  life  I  read  next  to  nothing — 
even  of  professional  literature.  Then  as  always,  I  was 
an  impatient  reader  and  read  nothing  continuously  ex- 
cept novels  and  travels,  and  of  these  but  little.  I  am 
in  fact  constitutionally  idle.  I  doubt  whether  during 
all  these  years  I  ever  read  any  serious  book  for  an  hour 
at  a  stretch.  You  may  judge  of  my  condition  with  re- 
gard to  knowledge  from  the  fact  that  during  all  my 
life  up  to  the  time  Social  Statics  was  written,  there  had 
been  a  copy  of  Locke  on  my  father's  shelves  which  I 
never  read — I  am  not  certain  that  I  ever  took  it  down. 
And  the  same  holds  of  all  other  books  of  philosophical 
kinds.  I  never  read  any  of  Bacon's  writings,  save  his 
essays.  I  never  looked  into  Hobbes  until,  when  writing 
the  essay  on  "  The  Social  Organism,"  I  wanted  to  see 
the  details  of  his  grotesque  conception.  It  was  the  same 
with  Politics  and  with  Ethics.  At  the  time  Social  Stat- 
ics was  written  I  knew  of  Paley  nothing  more  than  that 
he  enunciated  the  doctrine  of  expediency;  and  of  Ben- 
tham  I  knew  only  that  he  was  the  promulgator  of  the 
Greatest  Happiness  principle.  The  doctrines  of  other 
ethical  writers  referred  to  were  known  by  me  only 
through  references  to  them  here  and  there  met  with.  I 
never  then  looked  into  any  of  their  books;  and,  more- 
over, I  have  never  since  looked  into  any  of  their  books. 
When  about  twenty-three  I  happened  to  get  hold  of 
Mill's  Logic,  then  recently  published,  and  read  with  ap- 
proval his  criticism  of  the  Syllogism.  When  twenty- 
four  I  met  with  a  translation  of  Kant  and  read  the  first 
few  pages.  Forthwith,  rejecting  his  doctrine  of  Time 
and  Space,  I  read  no  further.  My  ignorance  of  ancient 
philosophical  writers  was  absolute.  After  Social  Statics 
was  published  (in  1851)  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
Lewes,  and  one  result  was  that  I  read  his  Biographical 
146 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

History  of  Philosophy.  .  .  .  And,  shortly  after  that  (in 
1852),  a  present  of  Mill's  Logic  having  been  made  to  me 
by  George  Eliot,  I  read  that  through:  one  result  being 
that  I  made  an  attack  upon  one  of  his  doctrines  in 
the  Westminster. 

Since  those  days  I  have  done  nothing  worth  mention- 
ing to  fill  up  the  implied  deficiencies.  Twice  or  thrice 
I  have  taken  up  Plato's  Dialogues  and  have  quickly  put 
them  down  with  more  or  less  irritation.  And  of  Aris- 
totle I  know  even  less  than  of  Plato.1 

If  you  ask  how  there  comes  such  an  amount  of  incor- 
porated fact  as  is  found  in  Social  Statics,  my  reply  is 
that  when  preparing  to  write  it  I  read  up  in  those  direc- 
tions in  which  I  expected  to  find  materials  for  generali- 
sation. I  did  not  trouble  myself  with  the  generalisa- 
tions of  others. 

And  that  indeed  indicates  my  general  attitude.  All 
along  I  have  looked  at  things  through  my  own  eyes  and 
not  through  the  eyes  of  others.  I  believe  that  it  is  in 
some  measure  because  I  have  gone  direct  to  Nature,  and 
have  escaped  the  warping  influences  of  traditional  be- 
liefs, that  I  have  reached  the  views  I  have  reached.  .  .  . 

My  own  course — not  intentionally  pursued,  but  spon- 
taneously pursued — may  be  characterised  as  little  read- 
ing and  much  thinking,  and  thinking  about  facts  learned 
at  first  hand.  Perhaps  I  should  add,  that  my  interest 
all  along  has  been  mainly  in  the  science  of  Life,  physical, 
mental  and  social.  I  hold  that  the  study  of  the  science 
of  Life  under  all  its  aspects  is  the  true  preparation  for 
a  teacher  of  Ethics.  And  it  must  be  the  science  of  Life 
as  it  is  conceived  now,  and  not  as  it  was  conceived  in 
past  times. 

If  you  ask  me  what  test  you  are  to  establish,  I  can- 
not answer.  I  simply  raise  the  question — Is  it  neces- 
sary to  establish  any  test?  May  not  the  choice  be  de- 

1  In  a  letter  to  Prof.  Brough,  of  Aberystwith,  in  1895,  he  said, 
"I  never  at  any  time  paid  the  least  attention  to  formal  logic, 
and  hold  that  for  all  practical  purposes  it  is  useless." 

147 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

cided  by  the  evidence  furnished  in  each  case  apart  from 
any  specified  standard? 


While  he  was  at  Oakhurst,  South  Godstone,  in  July, 
Mrs.  Leonard  Courtney  sent  him  an  account  of  visits 
she  had  had  from  two  of  his  admirers — Mr.  Hector  Mac- 
pherson  and  the  Chinese  Ambassador,  Sir  Chih  Chen  Lo 
Feng-Luh,  whom  he  had  entertained  at  lunch  in  June. 
"  Of  course,"  he  replied,  "  I  am  interested  in  your  ac- 
count of  Mr.  Macpherson  and  the  Chinese  Ambassador. 
The  latter 's  opinion  that  I  am  a  resurrected  Confucius 
is  amusing,  as  is  also  his  opinion  that  I  ought  to  be  a 
Duke."  Writing  late  in  the  year  to  another  friend — 
Mr.  Carnegie — acknowledging  a  present  of  grouse,  he 
remarks : — 


Doubtless  it  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  being  a  high- 
land laird  that  you  can  thus  give  gratifications  to  your 
friends ;  but  I  can  quite  believe,  as  you  hint  in  your  last 
letter,  that  along  with  advantages  there  are  increasing 
responsibilities.  It  is  not  only  true,  as  Bacon  says,  that 
when  a  man  marries  he  gives  hostages  to  fortune,  but 
it  is  also  true  that  he  does  this  when  he  increases 
his  belongings  of  every  kind. 


The  letter  that  follows,  written  to  a  lady  in  Geneva, 
contains  nothing  with  which  the  reader  is  not  familiar. 
But,  besides  putting  the  evils  of  governmental  interfer- 
ence and  control  very  clearly,  it  bears  witness  to  Spen- 
cer's life-long  consistency  with  regard  to  fundamental 
opinions.  It  was  translated  into  French  and  German 
and  read  at  a  Congress  in  Switzerland. 
148 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 
To  MBS.  JOSEPHINE  BUTLER. 

3  September,  1899. 

I  learn  with  pleasure  that  you  and  some  others  are 
opposing  the  adoption  of  coercive  methods  for  achieving 
moral  ends. 

Briefly  stated  my  own  views  on  such  matters  are 
these : — 

Nearly  all  thinking  about  political  and  social  affairs  is 
vitiated  by  ignoring  all  effects  save  those  immediately 
contemplated.  Men,  anxious  to  stop  an  evil  or  obtain 
a  good,  do  not  consider  what  will  be  the  collateral  re- 
sults of  the  governmental  agencies  they  employ,  or  what 
will  be  the  remote  results.  They  do  not  recognise  the 
fact  that  every  new  instrumentality  established  for  con- 
trolling individual  conduct  becomes  a  precedent  for 
other  such  instrumentalities,  and  that  year  after  year 
philanthropists  with  new  aims  urge  on  further  coercive 
agencies,  and  that  so  little  by  little  they  establish  a  type 
of  social  organisation — a  type  which  no  one  of  them  con- 
templated when  he  was  urging  on  his  particular  plan. 

The  highest  aim  ever  to  be  kept  in  view  by  legislators 
and  those  who  seek  for  legislation  is  the  formation  of 
character.  Citizens  of  a  high  type  are  self-regulating, 
and  citizens  who  have  to  be  regulated  by  external  force 
are  manifestly  of  a  low  type.  Men,  like  all  other  crea- 
tures, are  ever  being  moulded  into  harmony  with  their 
conditions.  If,  generation  after  generation,  their  con- 
duct in  all  its  details  is  prescribed  for  them,  they  will 
more  and  more  need  official  control  in  all  things.  .  .  . 

The  final  outcome  of  the  policy  in  favour  with  philan- 
thropists and  legislators  is  a  form  of  society  like  that 
which  existed  in  ancient  Peru,  where  every  tenth  man 
was  an  official  controlling  the  other  nine ;  where  the  regu- 
lation went  to  the  extreme  of  inspecting  every  house- 
hold to  see  that  it  was  well  administered,  the  furniture 
in  good  order,  and  the  children  properly  managed;  and 
where  the  effect  of  this  universal  regulation  of  conduct 
149 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

was  the  production  of  a  character  such  that  the  enfeebled 
society  went  down  like  a  house  of  cards  before  a  hand- 
ful of  Spaniards. 

On  completing  the  revision  of  the  Principles  of  Bi- 
ology towards  the  end  of  1899,  he  at  once  took  in  hand 
the  preparation  of  a  final  edition  of  First  Principles. 
Owing  to  the  number  and  importance  of  the  alterations, 
he  was  desirous  that  the  existing  translations  should  be 
replaced  as  soon  as  possible  by  translations  of  this  final 
edition.  When  the  German  version  was  completed,  Pro- 
fessor Victor  Carus  wrote:  "  And  now  once  more,  allow 
me  to  repeat  my  most  cordial  thanks  that  you  allowed 
me  to  translate  your  work  anew.  It  was  a  very  great 
treat  to  me."  Below  this  Spencer  has  written:  "  This 
is  the  highest  compliment  I  ever  received,  considering 
Professor  Carus 's  age  and  position."  It  was  with  no 
ordinary  satisfaction  that,  towards  the  end  of  his 
eightieth  year,  he  gave  the  finishing  touches  to  the  sys- 
tem of  philosophy,  on  which  he  had  been  engaged  for 
forty  years.  His  gratification  was  enhanced  by  the  cor- 
dial greetings  from  all  parts  of  the  world  which  poured 
in  upon  him  on  his  birthday — greetings  which  he  ac- 
knowledged in  a  circular  written  by  his  own  hand  and 
lithographed : — 

Letters  and  telegrams,  conveying  the  congratulations 
and  good  wishes  of  known  and  unknown  friends,  have 
reached  me  yesterday  and  to-day  in  such  numbers  that, 
even  were  I  in  good  health  it  would  scarcely  be  prac- 
ticable to  write  separate  acknowledgments.  I  must 
therefore  ask  you,  in  common  with  others,  kindly  to  ac- 
cept this  general  letter  which,  while  expressing  my 
thanks  to  those  who  have  manifested  their  sympathy, 
150 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

also  expresses  my  great  pleasure  in  receiving  so  many 
marks  of  it  from  my  own  countrymen  and  from  men  of 
other  nationalities. 

No  one  will  deny  that  Spencer  was  entitled  to  look 
forward  to  the  enjoyment  of  undisturbed  serenity  now 
that  the  task,  for  which  he  had  sacrificed  so  much,  was 
completed.  But,  ere  the  work  of  revision  had  been  fully 
accomplished,  events  were  taking  place  that  were  to 
cause  him  anxiety  and  vexation  during  the  remaining 
years  of  his  life.  Some  time  before  the  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities in  South  Africa  he  had  denounced  the  policy 
that  was  drifting  the  country  into  war.  Whatever  one's 
opinion  may  be  as  to  the  right  or  the  wrong  of  the 
war,  one  must  admit  that  Spencer's  attitude  towards  it 
was  in  complete  harmony  with  the  principles  he  had 
throughout  life  professed.  He  was  invited  to  sign  a 
protest. 

To  JAMES  SULLY. 

10  December,  1899. 

Who  are  the  "  we  "?  I  should  not  like  to  give  my 
name  in  such  a  case  without  being  made  aware  with 
whose  names  mine  would  be  joined. 

Further,  I  think  that  the  protest  is  not  sufficiently 
strong,  and  not  sufficiently  concise.  .  .  .  Among  the 
facts  which  should  be  emphasised  are  (1)  that  the  out- 
landers  were  a  swarm  of  unwelcome  intruders  and  had 
no  right  to  complain  of  the  social  regime  into  which 
they  intruded  themselves,  since  nobody  asked  them  to 
stay  if  they  did  not  like  it.  (2)  They  were  proved  trait- 
ors trying  to  overturn  the  government  which  gave  them 
hospitality,  and,  as  Lord  Loch's  evidence  shows,  were 
long  contemplating  a  rising  and  a  seizure  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  Traitors  cannot  put  in  a  claim 
to  political  power.  (3)  The  Boers  have  done  no  more 
151 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

than  would  inevitably  have  been  done  by  ourselves  if 
similarly  placed,  and  in  doing  which  we  should  have 
regarded  ourselves  as  patriotic  and  highly  praiseworthy. 
(4)  The  advocacy  of  annexation  is  nothing  more  than  a 
continuance  of  our  practice  of  political  burglary.  (5) 
We  are  rightly  vituperated  by  other  nations,  as  we 
should  vituperate  any  one  of  them  who  did  similar 
things,  and  as  we  are  now  vituperating  Russia,  for  its 
policy  in  Finland,  carried  out  in  a  much  milder 
manner.1 

To  MARK  JUDGE. 

2  January,  1900. 

During  the  last  week  I  have  been  in  communication 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Anti-Vaccination  League,  and 
also  with  the  Chairman  of  the  South  African  Concilia- 
tion Committee,  and  this  morning  I  have  a  request  from 
the  Editor  of  the  Speaker  to  express  my  sympathy  with 
the  course  which  they  are  pursuing.  In  all  these  cases 
I  am  making  a  favourable  response. 

I  am  now  nearly  eighty,  and  it  is  more  and  more 
clear  to  me  that  I  must  cut  myself  off  from  these  vari- 
ous distractions  as  much  as  possible  for  I  have  still 
something  I  want  to  do,  and  thinking  this,  I  decide  it 
will  be  better  for  me  to  decline  taking  any  part  in  this 
League  for  Licensing  Reform,  even  in  the  position  of 
Vice-President.  ...  I  wish  you  success  in  your  efforts. 

While  approving  of  the  attitude  of  the  Speaker  to- 
wards the  war,  he  declined  to  become  a  regular  sub- 
scriber because  its  political  views  were  "  distinctly  so- 
cialistic or  collectivist,  if  you  choose  so  to  call  them,  and 
much  as  I  abhor  war  I  abhor  socialism  in  all  its  forms 
quite  as  much."  On  5  February  the  Morning  Leader 

1  Spencer  was  one  of  the  signatories  of  the  memorial  to  the  Czar 
on  behalf  of  the  people  of  Finland,  which  His  Majesty  declined  to 
receive. 

152 


BIOLOGY  AND  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  REVISED 

had  a  letter  from  him  protesting  against  the  spirit  shown 
by  those  who  shouted  to  the  departing  troops :  ' '  Re- 
member Majuba. ' ' 

To  SIE  EDWARD  FRY. 

6  February,  1900. 

Popular  passion,  excited  by  political  and  financial 
agencies,  has  gagged  all  but  one  of  those  morning  papers 
which  expressed  opposition  to  our  war  policy  in  South 
Africa.  The  Morning  Leader  is  the  only  one  that  re- 
mains to  give  voice  to  those  who  reprobate  the  war  and 
desire  that  the  two  republics  shall  maintain  their  inde- 
pendence. You  will  see  by  a  copy  of  the  paper,  which 
you  have  by  this  time  received,  that,  by  the  expression 
of  sympathetic  opinions,  efforts  are  being  made  to  sup- 
port this  organ  of  views  properly  to  be  called  Christian, 
in  opposition  to  the  views  of  those  properly  to  be  called 
Pagan. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  much  can  be  done  towards 
checking  the  war  fever,  but  it  may  be  hoped  that  by 
spreading  so  far  as  may  be  sympathy  with  equitable 
sentiments  and  reprobating  those  who  sneer  at  "  unctu- 
ous rectitude, ' '  something  may  be  done  towards  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  a  settlement  not  so  utterly  inequitable 
as  is  now  threatened. 

Could  you  help  by  adding  some  expression  of  your 
opinion  to  the  expressions  of  opinions  already  pub- 
lished? 

A  similar  letter  was  sent  to  Dr.  Edward  Caird,  Mas- 
ter of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 

To  THE  RIGHT  HON.  LEONARD  COURTNEY. 

24  February,  1900. 

I  daresay  you  will  think  me  rather  absurd  in  making  a 
suggestion  respecting  your  attitude  towards  your  con- 
stituents. 

153 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

There  has  grown  up  the  altogether  unwarrantable 
assumption  that  a  man  represents  that  particular  part  of 
the  constituency  which  has  elected  him,  and  when  that 
part  of  the  constituency — some  Conservative  or  Liberal 
Association,  or  what  not — through  whose  instrumen- 
tality he  was  elected  disapproves  of  his  course,  it  seems 
to  be  thought  by  them,  and  by  the  public  at  large,  that  he 
is  thereupon  called  upon  to  resign.  But  where  is  there 
any  indication,  either  in  the  constitution  or  in  the  theory 
of  representation,  that  a  member  of  parliament  repre- 
sents any  particular  section  of  his  constituency,  any 
party  ?  So  far  as  I  know,  the  idea  of  party  is  not  recog- 
nised in  the  representative  system  at  all.  A  member  of 
parliament  represents  the  constituency  and  the  whole 
constituency,  and  not  any  particular  section  of  it.  ... 
Hence  it  results  that,  if  any  Liberal  or  Conservative  As- 
sociation, or  any  other  kind  of  caucus,  calls  upon  him  in 
a  case  like  the  present,  to  resign,  his  fit  reply  may  be 
that  as  a  representative  of  the  whole  constituency  he 
cannot  even  entertain  the  proposition  to  resign,  until  it 
is  shown  to  him  that  a  majority  of  the  whole  constitu- 
ency wishes  him  to  do  so. 

I  do  not  know  that  in  your  case  the  assumption  of 
such  an  attitude  would  be  of  any  advantage,  since,  prob- 
ably, the  remainder  of  the  constituency  is  more  against 
you  than  the  part  which  elected  you.  Still,  I  suggest 
this  as  a  general  course  of  conduct  applicable  to  all 
cases. 


154 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  little  has  been  said  as  to 
the  application  of  evolution  to  inorganic  Nature.  This 
division  was  passed  over  in  Spencer's  programme 
"  partly  because,  even  without  it,  the  scheme  is  too  ex- 
tensive ;  and  partly  because  the  interpretation  of  organic 
Nature  ...  is  of  more  immediate  importance."  While 
most  will  admit  the  cogency  of  these  two  reasons,  many, 
after  reading  the  earlier  volumes  of  the  series,  will  agree 
with  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  in  desiring  to  see  the  working  out 
of  the  principles  of  evolution  in  the  omitted  division  of 
the  programme.  Some  may  even  think,  with  Dr.  David 
Sharp,  of  Cambridge,  that  the  application  of  evolution 
to  inorganic  Nature  was  of  more  importance  than  the 
attempt  to  upset  Professor  Weismann's  theory.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  it  would  be  a  very  perverse  judgment  that 
would  regard  the  absence  of  this  division  as  telling 
against  Spencer's  work  as  a  whole.  Objection  may  be 
made  if  a  writer  fails  to  accomplish  what  he  undertook 
to  do.  But,  it  can  hardly  be  urged  against  the  value  of 
what  he  has  accomplished  that  he  has  not  done  something 
which,  for  sufficient  reasons,  he  announced  at  the  outset 
he  did  not  propose  to  undertake.  To  discredit  Spencer's 
teaching,  as  has  been  done,  now  because  he  attempted 
too  much,  and  now  because  he  did  not  attempt  more, 
does  not  help  those  who  honestly  wish  to  arrive  at  a 
just  estimate  of  it. 

155 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

It  is,  however,  a  mistake  to  assume  that  Spencer  did 
not  apply  the  principles  of  evolution  to  inorganic  Na- 
ture. Not  only  was  the  subject  frequently  in  his 
thoughts  throughout  the  thirty-six  years  when  he  was 
writing  the  Synthetic  Philosophy;  but  even  before  his 
programme  was  issued  he  had  made  two  important  ex- 
cursions into  inorganic  Nature — excursions  that  had  no 
small  share  in  suggesting  and  developing  his  system  of 
thought.  The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  gather  to- 
gether the  correspondence  bearing  upon  evolution  in  its 
application  to  the  inorganic  world.  In  this  way  a  better 
idea  will  be  gained  of  what  Spencer  accomplished  in  this 
domain,  than  if  the  subject  had  been  dealt  with  inciden- 
tally, and  in  piece-meal  fashion,  in  the  course  of  the  nar- 
rative. 

The  scientific  topics  (other  than  professional  ones) 
that  first  and  chiefly  interested  Spencer,  during  the 
earlier  engineering  period,  were  Astronomy  and  Ge- 
ology— the  two  departments  of  knowledge  which,  when 
he  issued  his  programme  in  1860,  he  decided  to  pass 
over,  or  not  to  treat  in  detail.  Letters  to  his  father  dur- 
ing the  years  1838  to  1841  contain  frequent  discussions 
of  astronomical  questions.  Geology  was  taken  up  seri- 
ously in  1840,  and,  during  the  years  he  was  engaged  on 
railway  surveys,  he  had  many  opportunities  of  acquaint- 
ing himself  with  it  at  first  hand.  Speculation  as  to  the 
change  in  the  Earth's  atmosphere  consequent  on  the  ab- 
straction from  it  of  carbon  during  the  deposition  of  car- 
boniferous strata,  took  shape  in  1843-44  in  a  paper  in  the 
Philosophical  Magazine.1  In  the  same  periodical  for 
1847  he  had  a  paper  on  "  The  Form  of  the  Earth  no 
1  Autobiography,  i.,  624. 
156 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

proof  of  original  Fluidity."1  A  theory  about  nebulous 
matter  was  being  worked  out  by  the  middle  of  1851. 
He  had  written  to  Sir  John  Herschel  and  Professor  Airy, 
inquiring  "  whether  it  had  been  shewn  why  nebulous 
matter  must  take  up  a  rotatory  motion  in  condensing." 
Their  replies,  so  he  told  his  father,  show  "  that  my  idea 
is  new,  so  I  think  I  have  made  a  discovery  worth  pub- 
lishing. I  shall  write  a  paper  for  the  Philosophical 
Magazine."  He  was  in  no  hurry,  however,  to  rush  into 
print;  for,  though  he  told  his  parents  in  1852  that  he 
hoped  to  complete  it  shortly,  it  was  laid  aside  for  several 
years,  owing  to  the  writing  of  the  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, and  subsequent  ill-health.  But  by  the  spring 
of  1858  it  began  to  assume  a  definite  shape. 

To  HIS  FATHER. 

May,  1858. 

The  Nebular  Hypothesis  works  out  beautifully.  The 
article  will  contain  a  great  deal  that  is  new,  and  will, 
I  think,  render  the  argument  conclusive.  I  have  had  a 
long  talk  with  Dr.  Tyndall  on  the  sundry  novelties, 
which  were  based  upon  principles  in  physics.  He  en- 
dorses all  my  conclusions:  though  not  prepared  wholly 
to  commit  himself  to  them,  he  thinks  them  rigorously 
reasoned,  and  well  worth  promulgating. 

Some  months  after  the  publication  of  the  article2  he 
mentions  that  it  "  had  been  very  favourably  received 
everywhere.  It  was  ascribed  to  Baden  Powell."  The 
early  part  of  1859  was  taken  up  with  a  paper  for  the 
Universal  Review,  under  the  title  ' '  Illogical  Geology. ' ' 3 

1  Autobiography,  i.,  360,  641. 
2  Autobiography,  ii.,  25.  3  Autobiography,  ii.,  50. 

157 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

As  the  primary  purpose  of  "  The  Nebular  Hypothesis  " 
was  to  prove  that  the  inferences  drawn  from  the  revela- 
tions of  Lord  Rosse's  telescope  were  illegitimate,  so  that 
of  "  Illogical  Geology  "  was  to  direct  attention  to  the 
inconsistency  of  the  reasonings  of  geologists.  The  writ- 
ing of  these  two  articles,  which  touched  upon  the  two 
divisions  of  Inorganic  Evolution  as  he  conceived  it, 
played  an  important  part  in  the  evolution  of  the  scheme 
of  philosophy,  which  had  gradually  been  growing  in  ex- 
tent and  definiteness.  In  the  outline  sketched  during 
the  early  days  of  1858,  the  first  volume  is  represented 
as  including,  after  Parts  I.  and  II.,  dealing  respectively 
with  "  The  Knowable  "  and  "  The  Unknowable,"  Part 
III.,  Astronomic  Evolution,  and  Part  IV.,  Geologic  Evo- 
lution. 

Another  outline  of  this  first  volume,  of  what  he  calls 
the  Deductive  Philosophy,  presents  the  contents  of  Parts 
III.  and  IV.  with  more  detail. 


Part  III.     The  Principles  of  Astrogeny. 
Chap.         I.    Primitive  Cosmogonies. 
"  II.     A  Priori  Probabilities  of  Evolution. 

III.  Where  are  the  Nebulae? 

IV.  What  are  the  Nebulae? 
"           V.    The  Comets. 

"         VI.    Motions  of  the  Sun  and  Planets. 

"        VII.     Specific    Gravities    of    the     Sun    and 

Planets. 

"      VIII.     Temperature  of  the  Sun  and  Planets. 
"          IX.     Our  Sidereal  System. 
"  X.     The  Future. 

158 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

Part  IV.     The  Principles  of  Geogeny. 
Chap.         I.     Igneous  Development. 
II.     Aqueous  Development. 
"         III.     Geographic  Development. 
IV.     Meteorologic  Development. 
V.     Chemical  Development. 

The  omission  of  Astronomic  and  Geologic  Evolution 
from  the  programme  issued  two  years  later  did  not  mean 
that  the  inorganic  world  was  to  be  entirely  passed 
over,  but  only  that  it  would  not  receive  the  detailed 
treatment  accorded  to  Life,  Mind,  Society  and  Morality. 
Readers  of  First  Principles  are  aware  of  the  course  fol- 
lowed in  the  exposition.  "  The  Transformation  or 
Equivalence  of  Forces,"  "  The  Direction  of  Motion," 
and  "  The  Rhythm  of  Motion  "  are  each  exemplied, 
firstly,  in  astronomical  and  secondly,  in  geological  trans- 
formations, before  their  operation  in  organic  and  super- 
organic  transformations  is  discussed.  The  same  course 
is  followed  in  the  exposition  of  "  The  Law  of  Evolu- 
tion," "  The  Instability  of  the  Homogeneous,"  "  The 
Multiplication  of  Effects,"  "  Segregation  "  and 
"  Equilibration."  When  treating  of  "  Dissolution  " 
the  exposition  naturally  follows  the  reverse  order.  Put- 
ting all  these  expositions  together  one  may  obtain  a 
general  idea  of  what  the  Principles  of  Astrogeny  and  the 
Principles  of  Geogeny  would  have  been  like  had  time, 
energy,  and  knowledge  sufficient  been  vouchsafed  to 
him. 

What  he  described  as  "  a  further  development  of  the 
doctrines  of  molecular  dynamics  "  appeared  in  the 
Reader  (19  November,  1864)  under  the  title—"  What 
159 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

is  Electricity?"    Nine  years  later,  when  writing  to  Dr. 
Youmans  (12  November,  1873)  he  said: 

Since  I  began  this  letter  there  has  dawned  upon  me, 
after  this  long  delay,  an  extension  of  that  theory  of 
electricity  set  forth  in  the  Reader  and  published  in  the 
Essays.  I  am  busy  writing  a  postscript  which,  when  it  is 
in  print,  I  shall  submit  to  Tyndall  and  other  authorities, 
and,  if  they  do  not  disprove  it,  will  send  you  a  copy 
for  addition  to  the  American  volume. 

FROM  JOHN  TYNDALL. 

ATHEN^UM  CLUB  [1873]. 

I  have  glanced  over  your  paper,  rather  than  read  it 
critically.  It  shows  the  usual  penetration ;  but  will  you 
bear  with  me  if  I  advise  you  not  to  publish  it  as  it  now 
stands.  Its  aim  is  ambitious,  and  I  frankly  think  it  fails 
in  its  aim.  If  you  publish  it  as  a  speculation,  not  as 
an  "  explanation,"  no  harm  can  accrue.  But  I  think 
harm  would  accrue  if  it  were  published  in  its  present 
garb. 

I  often  wished  to  say  to  you  that  your  chapters  on  the 
Persistence  of  Force,  etc.,  were  never  satisfactory  to  me. 
You  have  taken  as  your  guide  a  vague  and  to  me,  I  con- 
fess, altogether  unsatisfactory  book.  The  greater  part 
of  your  volume  I  consider  to  be  of  such  transcendent 
merits,  putting  one's  best  thoughts  into  the  clearest  lan- 
guage, that  I  feel  all  the  more  the  transition  to  the  chap- 
ters to  which  I  have  referred.  I  expressed,  I  think,  the 
opinion  to  you  some  time  ago  that  they  ought  to  be  re- 
written. 

If  you  have  considered  how  the  disturbance  of  mole- 
cules can  generate  attraction  and  repulsion  at  a  distance, 
you  ought  to  state  the  result  of  your  thought.  If  you 
have  not  thought  of  this  question,  then  I  think  you  have 
omitted  the  fundamental  phenomenon  of  electricity. 

I  am  hard  pressed,  and  therefore  write  briefly.  You 
160 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

will  excuse  my  frankness.  I  certainly  should  grieve  to 
see  anything  with  your  name  attached  to  it  that  would 
give  the  enemy  occasion  to  triumph. 

To  JOHN  TYNDALL. 

22  December,  1873. 

I  quite  agree  with  you  as  to  the  undesirableness  of 
publishing  this  postscript  as  it  stands :  indeed,  I  sketched 
it  out  with  the  expectation  that  criticism  would  prob- 
ably oblige  me  to  remodel  it.  I  quite  intended  (but  I 
see  that  I  must  make  the  intention  more  clear)  to  put 
forth  the  hypothesis  simply  as  a  speculation:  apparently 
having  such  an  amount  of  congruity  with  physical  prin- 
ciples as  made  it  worth  considering — especially  in  the  ab- 
sence of  anything  like  a  satisfactory  explanation. 

I  have  had  another  letter  from  Clerk  Maxwell,  which 
considerably  startles  me  by  its  views  about  molecular 
motion.  I  should  like  to  talk  to  you  about  them.  They 
seem  to  me  to  differ  from  those  which  I  supposed  you  to 
hold,  and  which  I  supposed  were  held  generally. 

Thank  you  for  your  reminder  respecting  the  chapter 
on  the  "  Persistence  of  Force."  I  hope  to  nrnke  it 
worthy  of  your  approval.  I  am  now  remodelling  it,  and 
the  two  preceding  chapters. 

When  sending  the  paper  to  Professor  Clerk  Maxwell 
reference  seems  to  have  been  made  to  a  remark  made  to 
Professor  Kingdon  Clifford  regarding  Spencer's  views 
about  nebular  condensation. 

FROM  J.  CLERK  MAXWELL. 

5  December,  1873. 

I  do  not  remember  the  particulars  of  what  I  said 
to  Professor  Clifford  about  nebular  condensation.  The 
occasion  of  it  was  I  think  a  passage  in  an  old  edition  of 
your  First  Principles,  and  having  since  then  made  a 
little  more  acquaintance  with  your  works,  I  regarded 
161 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

it  merely  as  a  temporary  phase  of  the  process  of  evolu- 
tion which  you  have  been  carrying  on  within  your  own 
mind.  Mathematicians  by  guiding  their  thoughts  al- 
ways along  the  same  tracks,  have  converted  the  field  of 
thought  into  a  kind  of  railway  system,  and  are  apt  to 
neglect  cross-country  speculations. 

It  is  very  seldom  that  any  man  who  tries  to  form  a 
system  can  prevent  his  system  from  forming  round  him, 
and  closing  him  in  before  he  is  forty.  Hence  the  wis- 
dom of  putting  in  some  ingredient  to  check  crystallisa- 
tion and  keep  the  system  in  a  colloidal  condition. 
Candle-makers,  I  believe,  use  arsenic  for  this  purpose. 
.  .  .  But  you  seem  to  be  able  to  retard  the  crystallisa- 
tion of  parts  of  your  system  without  stopping  the  proc- 
ess of  evolution  of  the  whole,  and  I  therefore  attach 
much  more  importance  to  the  general  scheme  than  to 
particular  statements. 

After  describing  several  experiments,  which  he  would 
not  say  were  inconsistent  with  Spencer's  theory,  but 
which  were  very  important  and  significant,  Professor 
Clerk  Maxwell  continues:  "  As  I  observe  that  you  are 
always  improving  your  phraseology  I  shall  lay  before 
you  my  notions  on  the  nomenclature  of  molecular  mo- 
tions." One  of  the  terms  defined  was  "  the  motion  of 
agitation  of  a  molecule,"  namely  "  that  by  which  the 
actual  velocity  of  an  individual  molecule  differs  from  the 
mean  velocity  of  the  group." 

On  receipt  of  some  remarks  by  Spencer  on  the  word 
"  agitation,"  Professor  Clerk  Maxwell  wrote  again  (17 
December,  1873)  :— 

The  reason  for  which  I  use  the  word  "  agitation  "  to 
distinguish  the  local  motion  of  a  molecule  in  relation 
to  its  neighbours  is  that  I  think  with  you  that  the  word 
162 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

"  agitation  "  conveys  in  a  small  degree,  if  at  all,  the 
notion  of  rhythm. 

If  motion  is  said  to  be  rhythmic  when  the  path  is,  on 
the  whole,  as  much  in  one  direction  as  in  the  opposite, 
then  all  motion  is  rhythmic  when  it  is  confined  within  a 
small  region  of  space. 

But  if,  as  I  understand  the  word  rhythmic,  it  implies 
not  only  alternation,  but  regularity  and  periodicity,  then 
the  word  "  agitation  "  excludes  the  notion  of  rhythm, 
which  was  what  I  meant  it  to  do.  ...  A  great  scientific 
desideratum  is  a  set  of  words  of  little  meaning — words 
which  mean  no  more  than  that  a  thing  belongs  to  a  very 
large  class.  Such  words  are  much  needed  in  the  undula- 
tory  theory  of  light,  in  order  to  express  fully  what  is 
proved  by  experiment,  without  connoting  anything 
which  is  a  mere  hypothesis. 

To  J.  CLERK  MAXWELL. 

30  December,  1873. 

I  must  confess  that  I  was  taken  somewhat  aback  by 
the  statement  that  you  deliberately  chose  the  word  agi- 
tation because  it  negatived  the  notion  of  rhythm.  For  I 
had  hardly  anticipated  the  tacit  denial  that  the  relative 
motions  of  molecules  as  wholes  have  rhythm.  I  feel  fully 
the  force  of  the  reason  for  supposing  that,  when  mole- 
cules are  irregularly  aggregated  into  a  solid,  the  ten- 
sions due  to  their  mutual  actions  will  be  so  various  as  to 
produce  great  irregularity  of  motion ;  and  I  have,  indeed, 
in  the  first  part  of  the  speculation  concerning  electricity, 
indicated  this  as  a  possible  cause  for  the  continuity  of 
the  spectrum  in  solids.  But,  admitting  this,  there  seem 
to  me  two  qualifying  considerations.  If,  as  shown  in 
the  lecture  you  were  so  kind  as  to  send  me,  molecules  of 
different  weights  have  different  absolute  velocities  in 
the  gaseous  state ;  then,  must  it  not  happen  that  when 
such  differently-moving  molecules  are  aggregated  into 
solids,  their  constitutional  differences  of  mobility  will 
still  show  themselves?  Such  constitutional  differences 
163 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

cannot  well  disappear  without  any  results;  and  if  they 
do  not  disappear,  must  there  not  result  characteristic 
differences  between  their  motions  of  agitation  in  the  two 
solids  they  form — must  not  the  two  agitations  differ  in 
the  average  periodicities  of  the  local  motions  constituting 
them?  The  second  qualifying  consideration  which  oc- 
curs to  me  is  this.  Though  molecules,  irregularly  ag- 
gregated into  a  solid,  may  be  expected  to  have  motions 
more  or  less  confused  by  the  irregularities  of  the  ten- 
sions; may  we  not  say  that,  when  they  are  regularly 
aggregated  into  a  solid  (as  in  a  crystal),  they  will  be 
subject  to  regular  tensions,  conducing  to  regular  mo- 
tions? Do  not  the  formation  and  structure  of  a  crystal 
imply  that  its  units  are  all  so  homogeneously  conditioned 
that  they  must  have  homogeneous  motions? 

The  original  draft  of  the  postscript  to  the  article 
"  What  is  Electricity  "?  was  amended  in  the  light  of 
the  criticisms,  oral  and  written,  to  which  it  had  been  sub- 
jected at  the  hands  of  Professor  Tyndall,  Professor 
Clerk  Maxwell,  and  others.  Admitting  that  the  hypoth- 
esis had  received  no  endorsements,  he  held  that  it  had 
not  been  proved  untenable.  He  published  it,  therefore, 
as  a  speculation  only,  adding  to  the  postscript  another 
postscript  containing  suggestions  arising  out  of  the  criti- 


cisms.1 

The  constitution  of  the  Sun,  which  had  formed  the 
subject  of  a  paper  in  the  Reader  early  in  1865,  came 
up  again  in  1874. 

To  E.  L.  YOUMANS. 

16  October,  1874. 

Proctor,  in  the  last  number  of  the  Cornhill,  has  been 
drawing  attention  to  the  conclusions  of  your  astronomer 

1  Essays,  ii.,   176-187. 
164 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

Young  that  the  sun  is  a  hollow  sphere.  .  .  .  His  reason- 
ings are  in  great  measure  the  same  as  those  set  forth 
in  my  essay  on  the  ' '  Constitution  of  the  Sun  ' ' — reason- 
ings which  I  have  been  for  the  last  year  past  intending 
to  amend  in  respect  of  the  particular  process  by  which 
the  precipitated  matters  form  the  molten  shell.  There 
are  mechanical  difficulties,  named  to  Clifford  by  Clerk 
Maxwell,  to  the  mode  of  formation  as  originally  de- 
scribed. But,  on  pursuing  the  results  of  the  process  of 
precipitation  into  vapour  and  then  into  metallic  rain, 
perpetually  ascending  and  perpetually  thickening  as 
concentration  goes  on,  I  reached  a  conclusion  respecting 
a  formation  of  the  shell,  to  which  no  objection  has  as 
yet  been  made  by  the  authorities  with  whom  I  have  dis- 
cussed it.  Apart  however  from  this  particular  portion 
of  the  hypothesis  which  needs  amendment,  Professor 
Young's  conception  of  the  Sun's  constitution  and  the 
progress  going  on  in  the  Sun,  are  essentially  those  which 
I  set  forth. 


He  at  once  set  about  amending  his  reasonings  "  in 
respect  of  the  particular  process  by  which  the  precipi- 
tated matters  form  the  molten  shell."  A  slip  proof  of 
the  amended  hypothesis  was  sent  to  Professor  Clerk 
Maxwell,  who,  admitting  that  he  did  not  "  quite  under- 
stand the  principal  features  "  of  the  hypothesis,  adduced 
reasons  to  show  that  "  a  liquid  shell  supported  by  a 
nucleus  of  less  density  than  itself,  whether  solid,  liquid 
or  gaseous,  is  essentially  unstable."  On  Professor  Clerk 
Maxwell's  letter  (December  17,  1874)  Spencer  has  pen- 
cilled: "  This  argument  at  first  convinced  me  that  my 
hypothesis  was  untenable.  But  subsequently  the  corol- 
laries from  Andrews 's  investigations  concerning  the 
critical  point  of  gases,  implying  that  a  gas  might  become 
165 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

denser  than  a  liquid  and  yet  remain  a  gas,  led  me  to 
readopt  the  hypothesis. ' ' x 

This  point  with  others  is  touched  upon  in  correspond- 
ence with  his  French  translator. 

To  E.  GAZELLES. 

12  May,  1875. 

I  enclose  impressions  of  some  passages  which  will  be 
substituted  hereafter  for  certain  parts  of  the  essay  on 
the  "  Nebular  Hypothesis."  [One  of  the  alterations] 
is  made  as  an  abandonment  of  an  hypothesis  which  Pro- 
fessor Clerk  Maxwell  has  clearly  proved  to  me  is  not 
tenable. 

Respecting  your  question  concerning  the  calculation 
of  Tait,  or  rather  of  Sir  William  Thomson,  I  will  write 
to  you  shortly,  when  I  have  refreshed  my  memory  about 
it.  Meanwhile  I  may  say  that  I  believe  it  to  be  wholly 
untenable;  for  the  reason  that  it  sets  out  with  assump- 
tions that  are  not  only  gratuitous,  but  extremely  im- 
probable. 

20  July. — I  sent  you  the  other  day  Huxley's  address 
in  which  he  controverted  the  conclusions  of  Sir  William 
Thomson  respecting  the  age  of  the  Earth  and  of  the 
Solar  System.  I  meant  before  now  to  have  written  to 
you,  giving  my  own  further  reasons  for  rejecting  the 
inference  drawn  from  his  assumptions — or  rather  for  re- 
jecting his  assumptions. 

8  March,  1876.— I  referred  the  other  day  to  Sir  Wil- 
liam Thomson's  paper  on  the  solar  heat,  published  in 
Macmillan's  Magazine  for  March,  1862.  The  aim  is  to 
show  that  the  Sun  cannot  have  been  radiating  heat  at 
its  present  rate  for  anything  like  the  time  required  by 
the  inferences  of  geologists.  The  fallacy  in  his  argu- 
ment, which  I  remember  to  have  observed  when  read- 

1  Essays,  i.,  164. 
166 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

ing,  I  find  to  be  this: — the  calculation  which  lands  him 
in  his  conclusion  that  radiation  at  this  rate  cannot  have 
gone  on  for  the  required  period,  tacitly  assumes  the  bulk 
of  the  sun  to  have  been  something  like  what  it  is  now; 
whereas,  on  the  hypothesis  of  nebular  condensation,  the 
implication  is,  that  for  vast  periods  before  the  Sun 
reached  his  present  degree  of  condensation,  he  was 
slowly  contracting  from  a  larger  size,  and  was  all  the 
while  radiating  heat.  Helmholtz  has  calculated  that 
since  the  time  when,  according  to  the  nebular  hypothesis, 
the  matter  composing  the  Solar  System  extended  to  the 
orbit  of  Neptune,  there  has  been  evolved  by  the  arrest 
of  sensible  motion,  an  amount  of  heat  454  times  as  great 
as  that  which  the  Sun  still  has  to  give  out.  Now  since 
a  considerable  part  of  this  concentration  and  radiation 
must  have  taken  place  during  the  period  in  which  the 
Sun's  mass  was  receding  inwards  from  the  limits  of  the 
Earth's  orbit;  and,  as  during  all  the  latter  stages  of  this 
period  (say  from  the  time  when  the  Sun  filled  the  orbit 
of  Mercury)  we  may  assume  that  the  Earth  has  reached 
its  concentrated  form;  it  is  clear  that,  during  all  the 
remaining  period  of  the  Sun's  contraction,  the  Earth 
must  have  been  receiving  its  radiations,  though  in  these 
remote  periods  the  radiations  must  have  been  far  less  in- 
tense, yet  si:ice  they  emanated  from  a  relatively  enor- 
mous surface  subtending  at  the  earth  a  relatively  im- 
mense angle,  the  total  amount  of  radiation  received  by 
the  Earth  may  have  been  as  great  or  greater.  Remem- 
bering that,  were  the  Sun  double  its  present  diameter,  it 
would  need  to  radiate  at  but  one-fourth  its  present  rate 
to  give  us  the  same  amount  of  heat,  and  that,  did  it 
subtend  an  angle  of  5%  degrees,  one  hundredth  of  its 
present  radiation  for  a  given  portion  of  surface  would 
suffice;  we  see  it  to  be  not  only  possible,  but  on  the 
nebular  hypothesis  quite  certain,  that  the  Earth  has  been 
receiving  light  and  heat  from  the  Sun,  adequate  for 
purposes  of  life,  for  a  period  immensely  greater  than  is 
inferable  when  the  calculation  is  made  on  the  assump- 
167 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

tion  that  the  Sun's  bulk  has  been  during  the  time  some- 
thing like  the  same. 

The  dispute  between  the  physicists  and  the  geologists 
as  to  the  age  of  the  Earth  and  the  Solar  System  has 
changed  its  aspect  during  recent  years.  Until  a  few 
years  ago  the  temperature  of  the  Sun  was  supposed  to 
be  due  solely  to  concentration  of  gaseous  matter  and  the 
fall  of  meteoric  stones.  Sir  William  Thomson  estimated 
that  the  Sun  has  been  giving  out  heat  for  a  period  of 
some  twenty  or  thirty  millions  of  years,  and  that  ge- 
ologists must  limit  their  time  demands  accordingly.  But 
recent  discoveries  in  regard  to  radio-activity  point  to 
the  possession  by  the  Sun  of  other  sources  of  heat.  The 
duration  of  the  solar  heat  may  therefore  be  indefinitely 
extended — extended  at  any  rate  as  far  as  is  necessary 
to  satisfy  the  geologist,  with  his  indefinite,  and,  some 
think,  not  very  modest,  claim  of  from  one  to  five  or  six 
thousand  millions  of  years,  as  the  period  during  which 
the  Earth  has  been  sufficiently  cool  to  permit  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  living  things  on  it. 

Across  a  correspondence  with  Dr.  Charlton  Bastian, 
Spencer  has  written :  ' '  This  refers  to  the  fact  that  Lock- 
yer's  speculations  concerning  the  compound  nature  of 
the  elements,  as  shown  by  the  changes  of  the  spectra, 
were  pursuant  on  a  remark  I  made  to  him  expressing 
that  belief." 

To  H.  CHARLTON  BASTIAN. 

25  November,  1878. 

One  Sunday  afternoon  some  four  or  five  years  ago,  you 
and  I  called  together  upon  Lockyer.  .  .  .  We  chatted 
with  him  for  some  time  in  his  laboratory,  and  our  con- 
versation turned  upon   Spectrum  Analysis.  .  .  .  Have 
168 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

you  any  recollection  of  this  conversation?  and  can  you 
recall  any  opinion  which  I  expressed  respecting  the  im- 
plications of  spectrum  phenomena — what  I  thought  was 
to  be  necessarily  inferred  from  the  more  or  less  numer- 
ous lines  contained  in  the  spectrum  of  each  element,  and 
what  I  thought  was  to  be  inferred  from  that  transforma- 
tion in  the  spectrum  of  an  element,  which  takes  place 
under  certain  physical  conditions?  ...  As  we  walked 
away  something  passed  respecting  the  bearings  of  what 
I  had  been  saying  upon  the  views  contained  in  that 
work  [Bastian's  Beginnings  of  Life,  recently  published], 
leading  to  the  remark  that  had  you  entertained  the  view, 
you  might  have  begun  your  exposition  somewhat  further 
back. 

FROM  H.  CHARLTON  BASTIAN. 

27  November,  1878. 

I  recollect  the  walk  quite  well  to  which  you  refer,  our 
call  upon  Lockyer,  and  that  there  was  a  conversation 
in  his  laboratory  in  reference  to  the  different  spectra 
yielded  by  so-called  elements,  under  different  conditions 
of  temperature,  etc.  I  know  that  Lockyer  told  us  about 
some  of  his  recent  results,  and  that  you  expressed  some 
opinions  in  interpretation  of  the  evidence,  and  concern- 
ing the  transformations  of  the  spectra  to  which  he  re- 
ferred— but,  unfortunately,  beyond  that  I  cannot  go. 
The  details  have  slipped  from  my  memory. 

I  recollect  the  conversation  afterwards  to  which  you 
refer,  and  know  that  the  general  conclusions  from  the 
conversation  with  Lockyer  favoured  the  view  that  the 
so-called  elements  were  themselves  products  of  evolution. 

This  view  of  the  elements  came  up  again  some  twelve 
years  after. 

FROM  HENRY  CUNYNGHAME. 

30  May,  1891. 

A   short   time    ago,    being   in   the   company    of   Mr. 
Crookes,  he  was  good  enough  to  explain  to  me  his  theory 
169 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

as  to  the  composition  of  the  elements,  which  he  thinks 
have  been  formed  by  a  process  of  evolutional  segregation. 
He  has  devoted  some  years  to  experiments  upon  this 
question,  and  the  behaviour  of  the  rare  earths,  such  as 
yttrium  under  the  spectroscope,  strongly  confirms  these 
views.  For  by  long  continued  fractionation,  different 
sorts  of  yttrium  seem  to  present  themselves,  differing,  as 
different  breeds  (say)  of  cows  differ  from  one  another. 
Of  course  the  persistence  of  type,  when  once  developed 
makes  it  practically  impossible  to  transmute  metals,  just 
as,  to  use  his  own  simile,  you  cannot,  without  returning 
to  some  primitive  type,  make  a  cow  into  a  horse. 

I  said  that  I  thought  these  experiments  would  be 
highly  interesting  to  you  as,  in  one  of  your  works  this 
view  had  been  clearly  foreshadowed.  Mr.  Crookes  said 
that  was  so,  and  he  had  quoted  your  words  in  several 
of  his  lectures.1 

On  looking  through  Mr.  (now  Sir  William)  Crookes 's 
pamphlets,  Spencer  wrote  of  them  to  Mr.  Cunynghame 
as  "  yielding  verifications  of  the  view  I  have  long  enter- 
tained, and  as  tending  to  show  how  much  more  com- 
pletely evolutionary  the  genesis  of  compound  matter 
has  been  than  I  supposed.  It  is  marvellous  to  trace  in 
this  field  a  parallel  to  the  genesis  of  varieties  and 
species."  And  to  Mr.  Crookes  he  wrote  (8  June)  : 
"  Your  views — especially  in  respect  of  the  development 
of  varieties  and  species — carry  out  the  evolutionary  idea 
in  this  field  very  much  further  than  I  have  ever  dreamt 
it  could  be  carried."  It  is  doubtless  true  that  if  First 
Principles  were  to  be  written  in  the  light  of  recent  ad- 
vances in  physics  and  chemistry,  it  would  in  many  im- 
portant respects  differ  from  the  book  as  we  know  it  even 

1  Also  in  his  address  as  President  of  the  Chemical  Section  of 
the  British  Association  of  1886. 

170 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

in  its  final  form.  At  the  rate  of  progress  of  recent 
years  a  book  on  physics,  it  has  been  said,  cannot  appear 
"  that  is  not  already  out  of  date  a  week  after  the  au- 
thor returns  his  proofs."  Spencer  was  aware  that  his 
outline  of  Inorganic  Evolution  had  reference  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  time  and  was  subject  to  modification 
with  every  increase  in  our  knowledge.  Granted  that 
"  he  did  not  fully  nor  always  rightly  utilise  the  chem- 
istry and  physics  of  his  time  "  (and  who  has  ever  done 
so?),  he  has  the  incontestable  merit  of  having  foreshad- 
owed some  of  the  most  striking  chemical  and  physical 
discoveries  of  recent  years.  The  theory  that  the  so- 
called  elements  are  products  of  evolution  was  both  novel 
and  startling  in  the  seventies.  Now-a-days  it  may  be 
said  to  be  an  accepted  doctrine.  Not  only  are  the  atoms 
no  longer  considered  indivisible,  but  estimates  are  made 
of  the  number  of  corpuscles  or  electrons  contained  in  a 
so-called  atom;  and  descriptions  are  given  of  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  continually  going  on  among  tho  com- 
munities of  corpuscles,  ending  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
unstable  and  the  continuance  of  the  stable.  Like  species 
in  the  organic  world,  the  atoms  are  evolutionary  prod- 
ucts, the  result  of  competition  and  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Writing  in  July,  1880,  to  Dr.  Youmans,  he  mentions 
having  met  Mr.  Moulton. 

He  told  me  that  there  had  lately  been  made  a  dis- 
covery which  tended  to  verify  my  hypothesis  with  regard 
to  the  interior  constitution  of  celestial  bodies:  the  dis- 
covery being  that  made  by  a  Professor  Ramsay  of  Bris- 
tol,1 who,  it  turns  out,  is  a  very  competent  experimenter. 
He  contributed  a  paper  to  the  Royal  Society,  giving  re- 

'Now  Sir  William  Ramsay,  of  University  College,  London. 
171 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

suits  respecting  the  transition  from  the  gaseous  to  the 
liquid  state,  in  which  he  made  it  manifest  that,  at  the 
stage  of  pressure  in  which  the  gas  becomes  equally  dense 
with  the  liquid,  the  line  of  demarcation  of  the  two  gradu- 
ally becomes  hazy  and  vanishes  into  a  fog,  and  that, 
eventually,  the  liquid  and  the  gas  mingle  so  as  to  be  no 
longer  distinguishable.  And  Moulton  drew  my  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  this  makes  quite  feasible,  and  in  fact 
almost  necessary,  my  supposition  with  regard  to  the 
gaseous  nuclei  of  the  Sun  and  planets.  The  result  of 
this  will  be  that  I  shall  have  to  alter  afresh  that  passage 
in  the  essay  on  the  nebular  hypothesis  which  I  erased, 
and  shall  have  to  re-instate  part  of  it  and  modify  the 
remainder  so  as  to  incorporate  with  its  arguments  this 
revelation. 


No  article  of  Spencer's  was  subjected  to  so  many 
revisions  as  that  on  "  The  Nebular  Hypothesis."  Dur- 
ing January  and  the  first  half  of  February,  1883,  he  em- 
braced the  opportunity  of  a  new  edition  of  the  Essays 
being  called  for  to  subject  it  to  further  revision. 


To  E.  L.  YOUMANS. 

8  March,  1883. 

At  length  I  send  you  the  portions  of  the  revision  of 
the  article  on  the  "  Nebular  Hypothesis."  They  have 
given  me  an  immensity  of  trouble,  and  I  am  heartily 
glad  they  are  out  of  hand. 

The  trouble  has  been  in  part  caused  by  the  fact  that 
I  have  subjected  them  to  various  criticisms,  and  on  minor 
points  have  taken  advantage  of  these.  As  a  result  I  feel 
qmte  safe  as  to  the  legitimacy  of  the  speculation.  Of 
course  it  is  a  case  of  Speculation  versus  Speculation ;  and 
the  physical  arguments  being  admitted  to  be  tenable, 
the  thing  has  as  good  a  basis  as  can  well  be  given  to  it. 
172 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

Towards  the  end  of  1889  he  again  revised  and  added 
to  the  article,  before  incorporating  it  in  the  final  edition 
of  the  Essays,  being  assisted  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Lynn,  of  the 
Greenwich  Observatory.  Copies  were  sent  for  criticism 
to  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sir  William  Thomson,  Dr.  Isaac 
Roberts,  Lord  Crawford,  Mr.  Huggins,  and  to  Professors 
Dewar,  Darwin,  Williamson,  Frankland,  and  Tyndall. 
Writing  in  reply  on  January  1,  1890,  Sir  William  Thom- 
son said  that  he  felt  quite  lost  when  he  tried  "  to  think 
of  anything  that  can  be  imagined  as  a  primitive  condi- 
tion of  matter.  Of  antecedent  conditions  we  may  freely 
reason,  and  with  fairly  sure  judgment.  But  of  a  con- 
dition which  can  come,  under  known  law,  from  no  ante- 
cedent, or  of  a  chaos  which  existed  through  infinity  of 
past  time  till  a  declension  of  atoms  initiated  the  evolu- 
tion of  kosmos,  I  can  form  no  imagination.  Yet  we  seem 
to  require  a  primitive  condition  of  matter."  Whenever 
he  had  thought  of  it,  he  had  "  been  led  to  think  of  un- 
combined  separate  atoms  as  the  primitive  condition  of 
matter."  "  But  assuming  this  to  be  the  case,  we  see 
by  perfectly  definite  calculations,  that  the  heat  of  chemi- 
cal combination  from  the  condition  of  detached  atoms  to 
the  actual  state  of  matter  ...  is  very  small  in  compari- 
son with  that  due  to  gravity." 

To  SIR  WILLIAM  THOMSON. 

3  January,  1890. 

I  am  very  much  obliged  by  your  letter  of  yesterday, 
giving  me  your  criticism  in  such  clear  detail.  Let  me, 
while  thanking  you,  express  my  regret  that  I  should 
have  entailed  upon  you  so  much  trouble.  I  had  not  sup- 
posed that  you  would  write  so  fully,  or  my  conscience 
would  scarcely  have  let  me  write  to  you  at  all,  for  I 
173 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

should  not  have  liked  to  intrude  so  much  upon  the  time 
of  one  to  whom  time  is  so  precious,  knowing  as  I  do  by 
experience  how  terribly  correspondence  displaces  mat- 
ters of  much  importance. 

I  quite  follow  and  fully  appreciate  the  drift  of  your 
remarks,  and  more  especially  perceive  that  which  I  have 
not  before  recognised — the  relatively  small  amount  of 
heat  evolved  by  chemical  combinations  among  the  ulti- 
mate units  of  matter,  in  comparison  with  the  heat 
evolved  by  gravitation.  It  is  clear  that  the  amount  of 
molecular  motion  possessed  by  each  of  such  ultimate 
units  must  be  transcendently  great,  before  the  quantity 
of  motion  lost  by  unions  among  them  can  be  comparable 
in  amount  to  the  quantity  of  motion  lost  in  the  course 
of  the  journey  to  their  common  centre  of  gravity.  Still, 
I  suppose,  one  may  infer  that,  if  preceding  unions  of 
such  kind  had  generated  a  high  temperature  in  the  nebu- 
lous mass,  at  a  time  when  it  filled  the  orbit  of  Neptune, 
a  considerable  increase  in  the  time  required  for  concen- 
tration into  the  present  solar  mass  would  be  implied. 

I  am  much  obliged  by  the  copy  of  the  paper  which  at 
your  request  was  sent  to  me  by  your  secretary.  I  per- 
ceive that  it  contains  much  matter  of  interest  to  me.  A 
good  part  of  it  will  I  fear  lie  out  of  the  sphere  of  my 
comprehension;  my  mathematics,  never  very  extensive, 
having  become  rusty. 

Some  years  before  he  had  urged  Professor  Tyndall,  by 
way  of  change  of  work  and  scene,  to  "  take  up  the 
general  question  of  the  condition  of  the  Earth's  interior. 
Recently,  the  numerous  earthquakes  and  eruptions  in 
various  and  remote  parts  of  the  Earth,  sundry  of  them 
nearly  or  quite  simultaneous,  seem  to  me  to  be  quite 
irreconcilable  with  the  Thomsonian  view  that  the  Earth's 
interior  is  as  rigid  as  steel.  Further  contraction  of  this 
rigid  mass,  the  only  possible  cause  assignable  by  Thom- 
174 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

son,  appears  to  me  to  be  one  quite  incapable  of  explain- 
ing the  facts." 

To  J.  W.  JUDD. 

23  June,  1890. 

I  recently  read  with  much  interest  the  report  given 
in  Nature  of  your  lecture  to  the  Chemical  Society  on  the 
"  Chemical  Changes  in  Rocks  under  Mechanical 
Stresses."  Especially  was  I  struck  by  the  paragraph 
which  states  that  the  * '  volcanic  glass  known  as  marekan- 
ite  "  "  will,  when  heated,  swell  up  and  intumesce,"  and 
that  "  the  brown  glass  ejected  from  Krakatau,  during 
the  great  eruption  of  1883,  if  heated,  increases  to  many 
times  its  original  bulk,  and  passes  into  a  substance  which, 
macroscopically  and  microscopically,  is  indistinguishable 
from  the  pumice  thrown  out  in  such  vast  quantities  dur- 
ing that  great  eruption." 

I  am  reminded,  by  this  paragraph,  of  certain  conclu- 
sions concerning  volcanic  eruptions  which  I  reached 
after  an  excursion  up  Vesuvius  during  the  eruption  of 
1868.  Inclosed  is  a  passage  written  some  years  ago, 
briefly  setting  forth  these  conclusions.  Though  not 
named  in  this  interpretation  (which  is  simply  a  note  ap- 
pended to  the  account  of  the  excursion)1  the  character  of 
pumice-stone  had  occurred  to  me  as  one  of  the  evidences, 
since  the  liberation  of  water  and  its  assumption  of  the 
gaseous  state  under  diminishing  pressure  would,  besides 
producing  the  effects  above  described,  produce  in  many 
cases  masses  of  vesicular  substance.  It  matters  not  to 
the  hypothesis  whether  the  contained  water  is  mechanic- 
ally distributed  only,  or  whether  it  is  water  of  crystalli- 
zation, or  water  chemically  combined.  In  any  of  these 
cases,  if  it  assumes  the  gaseous  state  the  effects  will  be 
of  the  general  nature  described. 

But  my  more  immediate  purpose  in  writing  to  you  is 
to  ascertain  what  is  now  regarded  as  the  most  feasible 

1  Autobiography,  ii.,  p.  211,  note. 
175 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

interpretation  of  such  vast  catastrophes  as  that  of  which 
Krakatau  was  the  scene.  On  glancing  at  the  summary 
of  conclusions  contained  in  the  report  of  the  committee 
appointed  to  investigate  it,  I  find  to  my  surprise  that 
the  eruption  or  explosion  was  ascribed  to  the  intrusion 
of  the  sea:  the  implication  being  that  action  of  a  large 
body  of  water  on  a  large  body  of  lava  would  generate 
an  adequate  force.  Is  this  probable?  Such  a  co-opera- 
tion would  be  limited  to  the  surface  of  contact  of  the 
water  and  the  lava.  How  could  the  evolved  steam, 
quickly  checked  in  its  genesis  by  the  chilling  and  solidi- 
fication of  the  adjacent  molten  matter,  move  so  vast  a 
mass  ?  In  the  first  place  how  is  the  entrance  of  sufficient 
water  to  be  accounted  for?  Its  entrance  could  be  ef- 
fected only  by  a  pressure  greater  than  the  pressure  of 
the  body  of  the  lava,  part  of  which  extended  above 
sea  level.  Considering  the  relative  specific  gravities  of 
the  two,  such  an  intrusion  would  be  unaccountable,  even 
in  the  absence  of  greater  hydrostatic  pressure  on  the  side 
of  the  lava.  In  the  second  place,  apart  from  mechanical 
obstacles,  I  cannot  see  how  intrusion  and  spread  of  the 
water,  taking  an  appreciable  interval  of  time,  could  have 
the  consequence  supposed.  The  probability  appears 
rather  to  be  that,  by  the  steam  first  generated,  local  fis- 
sures would  be  formed,  allowing  of  escape  and  prevent- 
ing the  requisite  accumulation  of  steam,  even  could  a 
sufficient  quantity  be  evolved. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  suppose  a  state  of  things 
like  that  implied  by  the  above  hypothesis  and  implied, 
too,  by  certain  results  of  the  researches  you  have  sum- 
marised, we  have  a  force  that  is  both  adequate  and  of 
the  kind  required  to  account  for  the  various  effects.  On 
this  hypothesis,  the  molten  matter  within  the  volcano, 
forming  in  the  midst  of  its  cone  a  column  of,  say,  several 
thousand  feet  high,  contains  water  which  can  assume 
the  gaseous  state  only  towards  the  upper  part  of  the 
molten  column,  where  the  pressure  is  relatively  moder- 
ate. Suppose  that,  at  some  place  towards  the  lower 
176 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

part  of  the  cone,  some  considerable  area  of  its  side  has 
been  thinned  away  by  contact  with  the  contained  lava; 
and  that,  instead  of  emitting  through  a  fissure  a  small 
stream  of  lava,  as  commonly  happens,  it  suddenly  gives 
way  and  collapses  over,  say,  many  acres,  what  must 
happen?  Everywhere  throughout  the  lava  which  rushes 
forth,  the  water  and  carbonic  acid,  relieved  from  pres- 
sure, become  gaseous.  The  column  of  lava,  extending 
high  up  the  cone,  suddenly  falls  perhaps  a  thousand  or 
two  feet,  and  relieves,  from  the  greater  part  of  the  im- 
mense pressure  it  was  subject  to,  the  entire  body  of  lava 
which  filled  the  lower  part  of  the  volcano.  The  water 
and  carbonic  acid,  imprisoned  in  every  part  of  it,  are 
liberated;  and  a  mass  of  matter,  of  perhaps  half-a-mile 
cube,  suddenly  explodes. 

All  the  effects  produced  appear  to  be  natural  conse- 
quences. Once  being  ruptured,  the  sides  of  the  cone, 
subject  to  the  tremendous  force  of  the  escaping  gases, 
would  be  likely  to  collapse  and  be  in  large  measure 
blown  away.  Those  parts  of  the  molten  matter  which, 
not  being  very  far  below  the  crater,  had  parted  with 
considerable  portions  of  their  water  and  carbonic  acid 
in  the  shape  of  ascending  and  exploding  bubbles,  would, 
when  wholly  freed  from  pressure,  expand  in  but  moder- 
ate degrees,  and  so  would  form  vesicular  masses  of 
pumice-stone,  which,  ejected  in  large  quantities,  would 
cover  neighbouring  regions,  as  the  sea  was  covered  round 
Krakatau.  Further,  the  lower  portions  of  the  lava, 
which,  subject  to  high  pressure,  had,  until  the  moment 
of  the  explosion,  retained  all  their  water  and  carbonic 
acid  would,  when  these  were  suddenly  changed  into 
gases,  explode  in  such  a  manner  as  to  dissipate  their  solid 
substances  in  small  fragments,  down  to  minute  particles. 
Whence  would  result  enormous  volumes  of  dust,  such  as 
were  produced  by  the  Krakatau  eruption  and  so  widely 
pervaded  the  atmosphere. 

Probably  had  not  other  occupations  prevented  me 
from  being  au  courant  with  geological  speculation  I 
177 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

might  have  learnt  that  kindred  interpretations  had  been 
given ;  but  not  having  met  with  such,  I  am  prompted  by 
the  bearings  of  your  late  lecture  to  inquire  what  is  the 
present  state  of  opinion  on  the  matter. 

In  answer  to  the  enquiry  as  to  the  present  state  of 
opinion,  Professor  Judd  wrote  (25  June,  1890) : 

While  a  few  geologists  still  maintain  that  Volcanic 
Eruptions  are  produced  by  the  penetration  of  masses  of 
water  to  highly  heated  rocks — many,  and  I  think  the 
majority — following  the  late  Mr.  Poulett  Scrope,  hold 
that  the  gradual  disengagement  of  water-gas  and  other 
gases  in  the  midst  of  a  molten  mass  (as  the  pressure  is 
continuously  relieved  by  each  ejection)  are  the  really 
efficient  cause  in  a  volcanic  outburst. 

In  1894  he  thought  of  again  calling  in  question  the 
calculations  as  to  the  age  of  the  Earth,  made  by  Sir 
William  Thomson  (afterwards  Lord  Kelvin). 

To  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

1  October,  1894. 

Has  anything  of  late  been  said  apropos  of  the  con- 
troversy between  yourself  and  Lord  Kelvin  concerning 
the  age  of  the  Earth  ?  I  am  about  to  send  for  his  volume 
of  republished  essays,  but  my  impression,  though  a  vague 
one,  is  that  some  of  his  data  are  inadmissible.  I  fancy 
that  he  is  rather  famous  for  reasoning  mathematically 
from  assumptions  which  are  of  a  questionable  kind,  and 
then  affirming  positively  the  truth  of  his  conclusion ;  and 
the  world  at  large  have  that  superstition  in  regard  to 
mathematicians  that  they  accept  as  a  matter  of  course  a 
conclusion  mathematically  reached,  forgetting  that  its 
validity  depends  upon  the  truth  of  the  data. 
178 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

FROM  T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

3  October,  1894. 

Kelvin  and  I  have  made  no  progress  that  I  see.  It  is 
as  much  as  I  can  do  to  get  him  to  understand  that  the 
fact  of  evolution  being  proved  by  fossil  remains,  the 
time  it  may  have  taken  is  a  question  of  quite  secondary 
importance. 

This  information  was  asked  for  in  view  of  a  letter 
for  Nature  on  "  The  Cooling  of  the  Earth,"  which  he 
wrote  in  the  beginning  of  1895,  Mr.  (now  Sir)  George 
H.  Darwin  being  consulted.  The  letter,  which  was  im- 
mediately withdrawn  lest  it  should  provoke  a  con- 
troversy, was  as  follows: — 

One  who  is  quite  incompetent  to  criticise  a  chain  of 
high  mathematical  reasoning  may  be  not  incompetent  to 
form  an  opinion  concerning  the  validity  of  the  premises 
from  which  the  reasoning  sets  out.  Such  premises  may 
be  entirely  non-mathematical,  and,  if  so,  the  mathemati- 
cian cannot  claim  special  authority  for  them:  his  as- 
sumptions remain  open  to  criticism  by  others  than  mathe- 
maticians. Thus  looking  at  the  matter,  I  venture  to 
make  a  suggestion  respecting  the  calculation  of  Lord 
Kelvin  and  the  question  at  issue  between  him  and  Pro- 
fessor Perry. 

The  reasoning  of  the  one  and  the  criticism  of  the  other 
are  concerned  exclusively  with  processes  which  have  gone 
on  within  the  body  of  the  Earth.  In  the  one  case,  a 
certain  interior  constitution  is  assumed,  and  from  the 
rate  of  increasing  temperatures  at  increasing  depths  be- 
low the  surface,  an  inference  is  drawn  respecting  the 
time  which  has  been  occupied  in  cooling.  In  the  other 
case,  a  question  is  raised  as  to  the  validity  of  the  as- 
sumptions in  regard  to  the  Earth's  interior  constitution, 
and  a  consequent  scepticism  about  the  inferences  drawn 
179 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

is  expressed.  But,  in  both  cases,  it  appears  to  be  as- 
sumed that  the  condition  of  things  outside  the  Earth's 
body  has  all  along  been  the  same  as  now.  It  is  assumed 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  past  temperature  of 
the  Earth's  mass  and  of  its  solid  or  liquid  surface,  there 
have  been  the  same  facilities  for  the  escape  of  its  heat 
into  space  as  there  are  at  present.  Must  this  assumption 
be  accepted  as  beyond  doubt?  Are  we  not  warranted  in 
demurring  to  it?  May  we  not  even  conclude  that  it  is 
far  from  being  true? 

Since  the  existing  heat  of  the  Earth,  and  that  much 
greater  heat  which  the  argument  supposes  it  once  to 
have  had,  are  not  otherwise  accounted  for,  it  might  be 
contended  that  the  nebular  hypothesis  (or  the  hypothesis 
of  dispersed  matter  in  some  form),  which  alone  yields 
an  explanation,  is  tacitly  assumed ;  and  it  might  be  fairly 
held  that,  if  we  are  to  go  back  upon  the  nebular  hypothe- 
sis (or  the  hypothesis  of  dispersed  fragments)  at  all,  we 
must  go  back  upon  it  altogether.  Passing  over,  as  not 
immediately  relevant,  the  early  gaseous  state  (either 
primordial  or  produced  by  collision),  and  coming  at 
once  to  the  condition  in  which  the  elements  now  mainly 
composing  the  Earth's  crust  were  unoxidised,  the  infer- 
ence might  be  that  the  uncombined  oxygen  and  other 
gases  must  at  that  time  have  constituted  a  very  volumi- 
nous atmosphere,  and  that  the  escape  of  heat  through 
such  an  atmosphere,  especially  if  it  contained  any  com- 
pounds having  the  form  of  condensed  vapours,  must  have 
been  extremely  slow.  But  without  going  back  thus  far, 
sufficient  reason  may  be  found  for  a  demurrer  to  the 
current  conclusion. 

Let  us  grant  the  assumption  made  that  the  Earth's 
body  has  all  along  consisted  of  solid  matter,  if  not  such 
as  we  now  know,  yet  akin  to  it  in  respect  of  density  and 
conducting  power.  Evidently  the  inference  drawn  from 
the  observed  gradient  of  increasing  temperature  as  we 
descend,  itself  implies  the  belief  that  the  matter  of  the 
surface  was  once,  if  not  at  as  high  a  temperature  as  the 
180 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

interior,  still  at  a  high  temperature.  Suppose  we  go 
back  to  a  time  when  its  temperature  was  152°  C.  At 
that  temperature  water  boils  under  a  pressure  of  five 
atmospheres  (four  plus  the  normal).  The  implication 
is  that  maintenance  of  the  Earth's  water,  or  rather  part 
of  it,  in  a  liquid  form  on  the  Earth's  surface,  necessi- 
tated the  existence  of  a  quantity  of  aeriform  water  equiv- 
alent to  more  than  a  hundred  feet  of  liquid  water:, 
that  is  to  say,  assuming  the  mean  pressure  of  2^  atmos- 
pheres, the  stratum  of  steam  must  have  been  over  70,- 
000  feet  deep,  or  more  than  13  miles — an  estimated  depth 
which,  taking  into  account  the  great  expansion  and  in- 
definite limit  of  the  outer  part,  would  be  much  less  than 
the  actual  depth.  Even  supposing  this  vast  mass  of 
water  to  have  existed  as  transparent  gas,  the  escape  of 
heat  into  space  must  have  been  immensely  impeded: 
the  absorption  of  radiant  heat  by  the  vapour  of  water 
being  so  great.  But  the  water  could  not  have  wholly 
existed — could  not  have  mainly  existed — as  a  transpar- 
ent gas.  It  must  in  large  measure  have  existed  as  a 
dense  cloud  of  vast  depth.  The  implication  seems  to  be 
that,  next  to  the  heated  surface  of  the  Earth,  there  was 
a  transparent  stratum,  but  that  above  it  came  an  opaque 
stratum  of  far  greater  thickness,  at  the  outer  limit  of 
which  went  on  condensation  into  rain.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  escape  of  heat  must  have  been  effected  by 
convection-currents,  ascending,  expanding,  falling  in 
temperature,  precipitating  at  the  periphery,  and  there 
parting  with  heat  into  space.  Must  we  not  conclude  that 
during  this  period  the  cooling  of  the  Earth  went  on  at 
a  rate  relatively  small? 

During  stages  thus  exemplified  the  changes  in  the 
Earth's  crust,  at  first  of  igneous  origin  only,  would 
begin  to  be  complicated  by  others  of  aqueous  origin ;  and 
the  geological  processes  which  have  brought  about  its 
present  state  would  be  initiated.  But,  manifestly, 
throughout  the  enormous  period  required  for  the  toler- 
ably complete  deposition  of  the  water,  and  the  clearing 
181 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

of  the  air  from  its  vast  stratum  of  cloud,  the  rate  of 
escape  of  heat  would  be  still  relatively  small,  and  it  would 
go  on  only  slowly  increasing,  until  there  was  reached 
some  such  escape  as  that  which  now  takes  place  through 
an  air  often  cloudless,  and  at  most  times  only  moder- 
ately charged  with  water.  During  this  era,  the  geologic 
changes  would  be  actively  proceeding,  and  there  would 
be  time  for  the  deposit  of  a  vast  series  of  azoic  strata — 
a  time  to  which  the  present  gradient  of  internal  tem- 
perature gives  no  clue. 

A  long  and  complicated  series  of  biologic  changes 
would  become  possible  after  the  temperature  had  fallen 
to  100°  C.  It  is  true  that  though  some  forms  of  Proto- 
zoa can  exist  at  that  temperature,  or  even  a  little  above 
it,  we  may  not  infer  that  therefore  life  might  then  have 
commenced,  for  the  agency  of  light  may  have  been  lack- 
ing. Though,  with  seas  at  a  temperature  of  212°  F., 
the  stratum  of  cloud  may  not  have  been  so  dense  as  to 
prevent  the  passage  of  some  light — though  the  darkness 
may  not  have  been  as  great  as  that  which  exists  at  the 
bottom  of  the  ocean,  where  nevertheless  there  is  a  large 
amount  of  life,  not  only  of  Protozoa,  but  of  Metazoa 
considerably  elevated  in  type — yet  it  may  be  contended 
that,  as  the  life  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  is  dependent 
on  nutritive  matter  present  in  sea-water,  which  has  some- 
where and  at  some  time  resulted  from  the  decomposition 
of  carbonic  acid  by  chlorophyll  with  the  aid  of  light,  we 
cannot  assume  that  light  was  not  essential.  Still  the 
inference  may  fairly  be  that  when  the  process  of  cooling 
from  212°  downwards  had  gone  so  far  that  the  universal 
cloud  allowed  a  certain  amount  of  light  to  pass,  life  be- 
came possible,  and  that  biologic  changes  might  have  com- 
menced at  a  time  when  the  cooling  process  was  not  going 
on  at  anything  like  its  present  rate,  and  might  have  gone 
through  many  of  their  earlier  stages  before  anything 
like  the  present  rate  was  reached. 

If  it  should  be  said,  as  seems  possible,  that  the  infer- 
ence from  the  gradient  of  internal  temperature  stands 
182 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 

by  itself,  and  may  be  held  valid  without  regard  to 
changes  in  the  Earth's  atmosphere,  this  reply  may  be 
made: — Let  us  assume  that  the  mass  of  the  Earth  once 
had  an  absolutely  non-conducting  envelope.  Its  tem- 
perature would  then  be  the  same  at  the  centre  and  the 
surface,  and  there  would  be  no  thermal  data  from  which 
its  age  could  be  inferred:  nothing  would  negative  the 
inference  that  it  had  so  existed  for  an  infinite  time. 
Now,  suppose  the  absolutely  non-conducting  envelope 
taken  away  and  the  Earth  left  bare.  The  cooling  then 
commenced  would,  in  course  of  time,  produce  a  gradient 
of  temperatures  analogous  to  that  which  is  found  ex- 
isting. But  the  data  furnished  by  this  gradient  would 
give  no  clue  whatever  to  the  duration  of  the  pre-existing 
period,  throughout  which  the  escape  of  heat  was  pre- 
vented. Any  inference  drawn  as  to  age  would  be  de- 
lusive. And  if  this  must  be  admitted  in  the  case  of  a 
sudden  change  from  absolute  prevention  of  radiation  to 
absolute  permission  of  it,  then  it  must  be  admitted  that 
a  gradual  change  from  great  prevention  to  small  pre- 
vention will  also  vitiate  the  inference.  The  observed 
gradient  when  the  obstacle  to  radiation  is  small  will  be 
delusive,  if  supposed  applicable  to  a  time  when  the  ob- 
stacle to  radiation  was  great. 

To  state  the  case  briefly  in  figurative  language — the 
Earth  had  once  a  very  thick  blanket;  its  blanket  has  in 
the  course  of  immense  epochs  gradually  thinned  away; 
and  hence  it  would  seem  that  an  estimation  of  its  age 
from  thermal  data,  which  assumes  its  present  thin 
blanket  to  have  always  existed,  is  open  to  grave  doubt — 
to  say  the  least. 


His  last  contribution  to  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  was 

made  in  1900,  when  preparing  the  final  edition  of  First 

Principles.    When  writing  section  182a  [p.  485]  he  was 

in  correspondence  with  Dr.  Isaac  Roberts,  whose  Photo- 

183 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

graphs  of  Stars,  Star-clusters,  and  Nebulae  he  found 
very  instructive.  A  month  or  two  after  the  issue  of 
this  edition  of  First  Principles  he  returned  to  the  sub- 
ject in  a  short  paper  on  "  The  Genesis  of  Gaseous 
Nebulae,"  which  he  intended  to  be  added  as  Appen- 
dix D.1 

In  a  short  letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view (April,  1900)  on  "  Professor  Ward's  Rejoinder," 
Spencer  thus  refers  to  the  criticism  arising  out  of  the 
omission  of  Inorganic  Evolution  from  detailed  treatment 
in  the  Synthetic  Philosophy: — 

He  continues  to  harp  upon  the  fact  that  the  two 
volumes  treating  of  Inorganic  Evolution  were  omitted  by 
me;  insisting  that  the  fabric  of  conclusions  drawn  is 
vitiated  by  the  omission.  Observe  the  alternative  im- 
plied by  him.  Execution  of  the  works  dealing  with 
Organic  and  Super-organic  Evolution  was  thought  by 
most  to  be  impossible,  and  if  preceded  by  works  dealing 
with  Inorganic  Evolution  would  have  been  quite  impos- 
sible. But  in  the  absence  of  the  part  dealing  with  In- 
organic Evolution  the  rest,  according  to  Professor  Ward, 
lacks  "  adequate  foundations  "  and  is  valueless.  Thus, 
it  was  useless  to  try  the  one  course;  it  was  useless  to 
pursue  the  other;  therefore,  nothing  should  have  been 
attempted.  It  was  not  allowable  to  leave  the  earliest 
stages  hypothetical;  and,  beginning  with  the  chemical 
elements  as  we  know  them,  to  trace  out  later  stages  of 
evolution  as  conforming  to  one  law.  And  then,  when 
it  was  pointed  out  that  the  gap  was  not  wholly  vacant, 
but  that  (in  addition  to  the  sketch  of  Inorganic  Evolu- 
tion in  First  Principles)  five  sets  of  evidences  I  had 
given  implied  that  the  chemical  elements  have  been 
evolved  [Essays,  i.,  155-9],  these  are  cavalierly  passed 

1  See  First  Principles,  p.  538. 
184 


INORGANIC  EVOLUTION 


over 
tive  essay 


as  having  been  set  forth  in  three  pages  of  a  "  fugi- 
essay."1 


1  Fugitive,  in  the  sense  of  being  a  review-article,  but  not  other- 
wise: —  not  fugitive,  since  it  contained  disproofs  of  the  belief 
then  current  among  astronomers,  but  now  abandoned,  that  the 
nebulae  are  remote  galaxies  (see  Proctor's  Old  and  New  Astronomy, 
p.  726)  :  —  not  fugitive,  since  the  conclusion  drawn  respecting 
the  Sun's  photosphere  (at  variance  with  conclusions  then  held) 
was,  two  years  after,  verified  in  chief  measure  by  the  discoveries 
of  KirchofF  and  Bunsen. 


185 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

HIS  LAST  BOOK 
(July,  1900— April,  1902) 

AT  the  age  of  eighty,  and  with  the  purpose  of  his  life 
achieved,  Spencer  had  established  an  indisputable  claim 
to  complete  mental  repose  during  the  few  remaining 
years.  But,  as  had  been  his  wont,  ere  the  work  was 
completed  on  which  he  was  engaged,  he  was  planning 
another  book.  In  September,  1899,  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Appleton,  of  New  York,  that  he  wished  to  have  the  re- 
vision of  First  Principles  out  of  hand  "  because  I  want 
to  devote  myself  to  some  further  work.  I  have  still  a 
little  energy  left,  and  still  some  things  to  write,  which 
will,  I  think,  make  a  volume  not  unlikely  to  be  popular." 
As  he  wrote  to  a  correspondent  in  the  following  year, 
mental  occupation  had  become  a  second  nature.  "  It  is 
difficult  after  fifty  years  of  writing  to  emancipate  one- 
self from  the  habit.  Life  would  be  too  dreary  were  the 
setting-down  of  ideas  brought  to  a  sudden  rest." 

Had  he  reflected  he  would  have  seen  that  there  was 
little  ground  to  fear  that  time  would  hang  heavy  on  his 
hands.  The  widespread,  varied,  and  prolonged  influ- 
ence he  had  exerted  afforded  a  guarantee  that  the  re- 
maining years  of  his  life  would  be  well  filled  with  the 
interests  his  writings  and  his  personality  had  created  or 
fostered.  His  characteristic  impatience  with  intellectual 
error,  moral  delinquency,  or  remediable  physical  evil, 
186 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

would,  despite  good  resolutions  to  keep  out  of  the  fray, 
continue  to  plunge  him  unwittingly  into  the  thick  of 
the  fight.  Correspondence,  never  light,  had  also  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Many  of  his  correspondents  were  per- 
sonally unknown ;  and  not  a  few  of  them,  though  osten- 
sibly anxious  enquirers  for  information,  were  in  reality 
only  commonplace  autograph  hunters.  Besides  begging 
letters  and  applications  for  interviews,  there  was  a  con- 
tinuous stream  of  requests  for  photographs,  autographs, 
mottoes,  sentiments;  for  advice  on  the  bringing-up  of 
children,  on  the  organisation  of  schools,  on  the  manage- 
ment of  debating  societies ;  for  expressions  of  his  matured 
opinions  on  all  manner  of  topics,  ranging  from  the  in- 
dustrial situation  in  New  Zealand  to  divorce  in  Italy. 
The  octogenarian  was  expected  not  only  to  favour 
authors  with  an  authoritative  judgment  on  their  books, 
but  to  justify  this  doctrine  and  to  explain  that  doctrine 
contained,  or  supposed  to  be  contained,  in  one  or  other 
of  his  own  writings,  extending  over  half  a  century.  Mr. 
Andrew  Lang  says  that  bores  fall  into  well-defined  cate- 
gories, and  that  a  general  lithographed  reply  should  be 
framed  for  each  category.  Spencer  had  for  years 
adopted  some  such  measure  of  relief :  his  lithographed  or 
printed  forms  having  in  some  cases  a  space  at  the  end 
for  a  sentence  dealing  with  any  special  feature  of  the 
communication  replied  to.  But  Mr.  Lang  admits  that 
it  is  not  so  easy  as  it  seems  to  devise  proper  replies  to 
some  correspondents  without  employing  profane  lan- 
guage. From  help  of  this  kind  Spencer  was  constitution- 
ally and  on  principle  debarred  *  To  certain  requests  the 
only  suitable  course  was  to  make  no  reply.  What  could 

1  See,  however,  Autobiography,  i.,  p.  570. 

187 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

he  say,  for  example,  to  the  members  of  a  literary  insti- 
tution in  India,  who  asked  for  a  present  of  all  his  books  ? 
How  was  it  possible  to  write  a  satisfactory  answer  to  a 
Hindu,  absolutely  unknown  to  him,  and  without  cre- 
dentials, whose  business  had  been  ruined  by  the  famine, 
and  who  asked  for  a  loan  of  £200  ?  How  could  he,  with 
his  dread  of  visitors,  give  a  favourable  reply  to  a  young 
Syrian  who  wished  to  spend  the  summer  with  him :  ' '  To 
accompany  you  in  your  daily  walks,  to  hear  what  you 
speak,  to  observe  how  you  act  in  all  the  common  affairs 
of  life  "?  While  ignoring  without  compunction  the 
general  autograph  hunter,  he  was  always  willing  to  send 
his  autograph  or  photograph  to  friends.  The  claims  of 
kinship,  even  though  distant,  were  responded  to,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  great-granddaughter  of  his  uncle  John,  to 
whom,  though  he  had  never  before  heard  of  her,  he  sent 
three  autographs  for  her  three  children.  Even  bearers 
of  the  same  name,  without  any  bond  of  kinship,  were 
occasionally  favoured  by  these  small  attentions. 

In  addition  to  the  customary  requests  from  editors  for 
articles,  or  paragraphs,  he  had  in  these  later  years  to 
meet  special  requests  suggested  by  special  events.  For 
example, — to  send  "  some  brief  message  of  congratula- 
tion and  counsel  for  the  Federating  Colonies  "  at  the 
opening  of  the  first  parliament  of  Federated  Australia; 
to  write  on  ' '  The  Guiding  Principle  of  Mankind  in  the 
Twentieth  Century;  "  "  to  rewrite  for  the  common  peo- 
ple these  two  quotations  from  your  admirable  works;  " 
to  answer  the  question :  ' '  What  is  the  chief  danger, 
social  or  political,  that  confronts  the  coming  century  ?  ' ' 
to  send  ' '  a  brief  New  Century  message  to  English-speak- 
ing women  ";  to  name  his  favourite  author,  which  of 
188 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

this  author's  books  he  liked  best,  and  his  reason  for  the 
choice ;  to  join  in  a  symposium  dealing  with  the  ultimate 
settlement  in  South  Africa;  to  write  for  a  Fourth  of 
July  number  "  something  in  the  way  of  an  expression 
of  your  opinion  regarding  Peace  amongst  men  ";  to 
contribute  towards  a  review  of  the  year  1901,  an  article 
on  "  The  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the 
World — to  what  extent  do  the  Events  of  the  year  1901 
foreshadow  the  realisation  of  this  Ideal  in  the  Twen- 
tieth Century  ";  to  express  his  opinion  on  "  Lord  Rose- 
bery's  letter  announcing  his  '  Definite  Separation  ' 
from  the  Liberal  Leader."  Not  only  did  the  infirmities 
of  age  negative  compliance  with  such  requests,  but  the 
very  idea  of  writing  on  a  text  prescribed  by  others  was 
one  which  he  never  could  entertain. 

The  place  selected  for  the  summer  was  the  Rectory 
at  Bepton,  just  under  the  Downs,  to  the  south  of  Mid- 
hurst  in  Sussex.  "  It  was,"  writes  Mr.  Troughton,  "  a 
most  charming  spot,  just  the  sort  of  place,  in  fact,  to 
appeal  to  a  man  so  passionately  fond  of  the  country  as 
Mr.  Spencer  was.  ...  It  was  here,  amid  this  delightful 
Sussex  scenery  that  he  pondered  over  '  Ultimate  Ques- 
tions '  and  put  into  words  the  reflection  which  had  more 
than  once  occurred  to  him  as  old  age  crept  on  apace — 
'  Shall  I  ever  again  be  awakened  at  dawn  by  the  song 
of  the  thrush.'  "* 

Letter  writing  was  easier  for  him  than  personal  dis- 
cussion: for  this,  if  for  no  other,  reason  that  he  could 
choose  his  time  better.  Animated  conversation,  as  years 
went  on,  more  and  more  upset  him.  Insomnia  became 
more  persistent;  yet,  so  sound  was  his  constitution,  that 

1  Facts  and  Comments,  p.  207. 
189 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

his  medical  attendant  remarked  that  "  old  age  had 
scarcely  touched  him."  The  restrictions  on  personal  in- 
tercourse made  him  all  the  more  keenly  alive  to  written 
expressions  of  sympathy.  Thus  he  acknowledges  con- 
gratulations from  the  South  Place  Ethical  Society  in 
July,  1900. 

Declining  years  have  their  pleasures  as  well  as  their 
pains,  and  among  the  pleasures  may  be  named  expres- 
sions of  sympathy,  such  as  those  contained  in  the  address 
you  send  me  on  behalf  of  the  South  Place  Ethical  So- 
ciety. Many,  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  the  devel- 
opment of  their  ideas,  have  not  had  the  satisfaction  of 
meeting  with  recognition.  Only  after  their  deaths  have 
their  ideas  been  appreciated.  I  have  been  more  fortu- 
nate, and,  having  lived  long  enough  to  complete  my 
work,  have  also  lived  long  enough  to  see  that  it  has  not 
been  without  its  effect.  Thank  you  for  your  kind  words, 
and  for  the  expression  of  your  good  wishes. 

The  book  he  was  writing  clearly  shows  how  deeply 
his  soul  had  been  stirred  by  the  war  in  South  Africa  and 
the  policy  that  led  to  it.  Probably  no  political  event  in 
the  whole  course  of  his  life  moved  him  so  profoundly. 
"  I  am  ashamed  of  my  country,"  was  his  frequent  re- 
mark. Liberals  equally  with  Tories  were,  in  his  opin- 
ion, responsible  for  the  deplorable  condition  into  which 
the  country  had  drifted.  For  this,  as  well  as  for  other 
reasons,  he  declined  to  join  the  League  of  Liberals 
against  Aggression. 

To  A.  M.  SCOTT. 

26  July,  1900. 

I  do  not  desire  to  be  classed  among  those  who  are  in 
these  days  called  Liberals.     In  the  days  when  the  name 
190 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

came  into  use,  the  Liberals  were  those  who  aimed  to  ex- 
tend the  freedom  of  the  individual  versus  the  power  of 
the  State,  whereas  now  (prompted  though  they  are  by 
desire  for  popular  welfare),  Liberals  as  a  body  are  con- 
tinually extending  the  power  of  the  State  and  restricting 
the  freedom  of  the  individual.  Everywhere  and  always  I 
have  protested  against  this  policy,  and  cannot  now  let 
it  be  inferred  that  I  have  receded  from  my  opinion. 

Nor  did  he  desire  to  be  classed  with  the  party  that  had 
seceded  from  the  Liberals.  In  June,  1901,  he  instructed 
his  secretary  to  write  to  the  editor  of  one  of  the  London 
papers : 

When  the  Liberal  Unionists  seceded  they  were  never 
weary  of  declaring  that  in  all  questions  save  one — the 
Home  Rule  question — they  remained  Liberals;  and  so 
long  as  this  question  was  prominent  they  were  entitled 
to  stick  to  the  name.  But  things  have  changed  since 
then,  and  their  raison  d'etre  as  '  Unionists  '  has  long 
since  disappeared.  .  .  .  They  have  now  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  the  Liberals  and  everything  in  common  with 
the  Tories.  Then  why  not  .  .  .  invariably  call  them 
Conservatives  or  Tories? 

To   MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 

15  August,  1900. 

Waves  of  human  opinion  and  passion  are  not  to  be 
arrested  until  they  have  spent  themselves.  You  appear 
to  think,  as  I  used  to  think  in  earlier  days,  that  mankind 
are  rational  beings  and  that  when  a  thing  has  been  dem- 
onstrated they  will  be  convinced.  Everything  proves 
the  contrary.1  A  man  is  a  bundle  of  passions  which 
severally  use  his  reason  to  get  gratification,  and  the  re- 

1  To  Spencer  might  have  been  applied  the  words  of  the  Times 
regarding  a  Russian  statesman:  "His  has  been  that  untimely 
fate — the  unhappiest  that  can  befall  a  reformer — to  sit  helplessly 
by  while  reaction  triumphs." 

191 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

suit  in  all  times  and  places  depends  on  what  passions 
are  dominant.  At  present  there  is  an  unusual  resur- 
gence of  the  passions  of  the  brute.  Still  more  now  than 
a  generation  ago,  men  pride  themselves,  not  on  those 
faculties  and  feelings  which  distinguish  them  as  human 
beings,  but  on  those  which  they  have  in  common  with 
inferior  beings — pride  themselves  in  approaching  as 
nearly  as  they  can  to  the  character  of  the  bull-dog. 

To  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT. 

5  September,  1901. 

When  is  this  dreadful  state  of  things  to  end?  I  hope 
that  there  may  come  a  severe  financial  crisis,  for  nothing 
but  the  endangering  of  their  personal  interests  will  open 
the  eyes  of  the  war  party. 

7  October. — You  are  doubtless  rejoicing,  as  I  am,  that 
the  aspect  of  affairs  is  black  for  the  Government  and 
for  the  country.  A  little  pressure  on  the  market,  a  bank 
failure  or  two  and  a  consequent  panic,  may  open  people 's 
eyes  and  make  them  repent.  However  heavy  the  pen- 
alty they  may  have  to  bear,  it  cannot  be  too  heavy  to 
please  me. 

About  this  time  he  wrote  (by  way  of  suggestion,  not 
for  publication)  to  the  editor  of  one  of  the  London 
papers. 

A  strong  point  might  be  made  against  our  proceedings 
in  South  Africa  by  quoting  a  passage  from  the  charge 
of  the  Grand  Jury,  delivered  by  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Cockburn  in  the  case  of  Governor  Eyre  and  the  Jamaica 
business.  In  that  charge  he  emphatically  asserted  that 
the  English  constitution  knows  no  such  thing  as  martial 
law;  saying  that  martial  law  has  no  independent  basis 
whatever,  but  is  an  agency  which  comes  into  action  only 
when  the  ordinary  agency  for  maintaining  law  has 
192 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

broken  down — is,  in  fact,  nothing  else  than  an  armed 
servant  of  the  ordinary  law,  which  is  called  in  when 
the  ordinary  servant  is  not  strong  enough  to  carry  out 
its  injunctions.  This  passage  should,  I  think,  be  con- 
tinually emphasised. 

To  THE  RIGHT  HON.  JOHN  MOELEY. 

10  November,  1901. 

I  enclose  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  written  a  little  time 
ago,  which  had  not  the  intended  effect. 

I  enclose  it  because  I  see  that  in  your  speech  the  other 
day  you  quoted  another  distinguished  lawyer  on  the 
question  of  martial  law;  and  it  occurs  to  me  that  if,  as 
I  see  stated,  you  propose  to  bring  up  the  question  before 
Parliament  this  next  session,  it  will  be  desirable  to  add 
Cockburn's  opinion  to  Campbell's.  .  .  .  Martial  law  as 
properly  understood  ought  to  be  nothing  more  than  the 
calling  in  of  the  soldiery,  with  its  accompanying  disci- 
pline, when  the  police  fails :  the  whole  thing  being  done 
under  command  of  the  civil  power,  and  ceasing  when  the 
civil  power  withdraws  its  command. 

An  interchange  of  letters  took  place  with  Dr.  E.  B. 
Tylor  touching  the  controversy  of  1877.1  Spencer  had 
drawn  attention  to  a  passage  in  First  Principles  (chap, 
ii.,  §  14,  para.  2)  in  which  occur  the  words  "be  it  in 
the  primitive  Ghost-theory,  which  assumes  a  human  per- 
sonality behind  each  unusual  phenomenon  " — words 
showing  conclusively  that  his  own  ideas  had  been  formed 
before  the  promulgation  of  Dr.  Tylor 's  opinions.  Soon 
after,  however,  his  secretary  discovered  that  the  passage 
cited  was  not  in  the  earlier  editions  of  First  Principles, 
having  been  first  introduced  as  late  as  1890.  Dr.  Tylor 
was  at  once  informed  of  this,  and  a  long  letter  was  af te>- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xiv.,  p.  252. 
193 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

wards  written  giving  an  account  of  the  genesis  of  his 
beliefs,  going  back  to  1853  and  concluding  thus: — 


I  feel  bound  to  recall  these  evidences,  as  already  said, 
because  I  cannot  leave  you  under  the  impression  that  I 
accept  your  version  of  the  matter,  but  I  do  not  suppose 
your  opinion  will  be  altered.  An  idea  fixed  for  thirty 
years  is  not  easily  changed,  and  it  is  impossible  to  change 
my  own  conviction,  conscious  as  I  am  of  what  the  facts 
were ;  so  the  matter  must  now  drop. 


Professor  Knight's  article  in  the  Bookman  for  Jan- 
uary, 1901,  was  a  welcome  introduction  to  the  new  year. 
Its  very  sympathetic  and  appreciative  utterances  he 
prized  all  the  more  as  coming  from  one  who  was  in  an- 
tagonism on  more  than  one  point.  "  In  England 
(though  not  elsewhere)  manifestations  of  approval  have 
usually  been  so  tepid  that  yours,  being  so  exceptional, 
give  me  much  pleasure."  In  May  he  was  both  "  sur- 
prised and  gratified  "  by  an  application  from  Mr.  Brant- 
Sero  (an  Iroquois)  for  permission  to  translate  Education 
into  the  Mohawk  language.  As  if  in  answer  to  his  com- 
plaint that  manifestations  of  approval  in  England  had 
been  tepid,  there  appeared  an  article  ' '  On  the  Last  of  the 
Great  Victorians,"  in  Black  and  White  (18  May,  1901) 
— an  article  pervaded  by  a  tone  of  "  deep  and  heartfelt 
sympathy." 

Incidents  like  these  belong  to  the  bright  side  of  1901. 
On  the  dark  side  were  not  only  the  war  and  the  alleged 
national  degeneration ;  there  was  also  the  continued 
shrinking  of  the  already  narrow  circle  of  his  friends: 
death  having  recently  removed  Dr.  W.  J.  Youmans,  Mr. 
194 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

John    Fiske,    Dr.    Lewis    G.    Janes,    and   Mr.    Robert 
Buchanan. 

Occasionally  one  comes  across  a  letter  which  shows 
how  he  was  progressing  with  his  last  book. 

To  SIB  ROBERT  GIPFIN. 

17  May,  1901. 

Is  it  possible  to  state  in  a  rough  way — of  course  in  a 
very  rough  way — what  is  the  amount  per  head  entailed 
on  producers  by  £100,000,000  of  national  expenditure  in 
terms  of  working  days?  ...  I  have  in  view  the  extra 
work  entailed  on  those  who  are  either  manually  occupied 
or  are  necessary  regulators  of  those  manually  occupied, 
and  on  whom  extra  taxation  entails  so  much  the  more 
labour.  I  want  to  state  how  many  extra  days  work  in 
the  year  £100,000,000  of  expenditure  entails  on  these. 

20  May. — I  am  immensely  obliged  to  you  for  your 
note  and  memorandum.  It  tells  me  all  I  wanted.  Noth- 
ing more  than  a  rough  estimate  is  possible  or  is  requisite 
for  my  argument — an  argument  directed  towards  show- 
ing people  that,  as  in  all  cases  throughout  history,  those 
who  enslave  other  peoples  enslave  themselves.1 

To  RIGHT  HON.  ARTHUR  JAMES  BALFOUR. 

PETWORTH,  19  June,  1901. 

I  believe  it  has  been  announced  that  you  propose  to 
drop  the  Copyright  Bill.  It  is  now  24  years  since  I  gave 
evidence  before  a  Royal  Commission  which  sat  in  1877, 
and  among  the  recommendations  agreed  upon  was  one 
that  the  duration  of  copyright  should  be  for  life  and  30 
years  after  death,  instead  of  being  as  now ;  and  I  believe 
the  report  of  the  Commission  recently  sitting  endorsed 
that  recommendation,  omitted  in  the  Bill  now  before 
Parliament.  .  .  . 

1  Facts  and  Comments,  p.  122. 

195 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Would  it  not  be  possible  to  introduce  a  short  bill  doing 
nothing  more  than  change  the  duration  of  copyright, 
leaving  all  detailed  matters  to  be  hereafter  dealt  with  ? 

The  matter  is  very  important  to  needy  authors  who 
have  families,  since  it  is  very  much  a  question  of  leaving 
a  good  provision  for  children  or  leaving  very  little. 

To  me  it  is  a  matter  of  no  personal  interest,  but  only 
of  public  interest.  I  have  bequeathed  my  property  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  Descriptive  Sociology 
after  my  death.  The  returns  from  my  books  will  form 
part  of  the  revenues  which  will  be  available  for  the  un- 
dertaking. Under  the  existing  law  a  large  part  of  these 
revenues  will  lapse  seven  years  after  my  death.1 

I  have,  however,  a  further  reason  for  being  anxious 
that  the  present  law  respecting  duration  should  be 
changed,  namely  that  as  the  law  now  stands  it  will  be 
possible  seven  years  after  my  death  for  anybody  to 
publish  the  imperfect  versions  of  my  books  of  which  the 
copyright  has  expired,  though  the  perfect  versions  are 
still  copyright.  .  .  .  This  I  should  regard  as  a  disaster. 

To  SIR  JOSHUA  FITCH. 

PETWORTH,  1  July,  1901. 

In  something  I  am  writing  I  want  briefly  to  enumerate 
the  various  ways  in  which  the  militant  spirit  is  infusing 
itself  into  our  teaching  institutions  of  all  grades — mili- 
tary discipline,  military  teaching.  .  .  . 

I  want  to  indicate  also  the  way  in  which  the  tendency 

xln  his  will  Spencer  provided  that  the  residuum  of  his  estate 
should  be  devoted,  under  the  direction  of  Trustees,  to  carrying 
on  the  publication  of  the  series  of  volumes  of  the  Descriptive 
Sociology,  commenced  in  1867  and  stopped  in  1881.  Mr.  H.  R. 
Tedder,  Secretary  and  Librarian  of  the  Athenaeum,  was  appointed 
general  editor  of  the  series.  The  following  volumes  are  now 
in  preparation: — Chinese,  compiled  and  abstracted  by  Mr.  E. 
T.C. Werner, H.M.'s Consul,  Kiu  Kiang,  China;  Hellenic  Greeks, 
by  Dr.  J.  P.  Mahaffy  and  Prof.  W.  A.  Goligher  ;  Hellenistic  Greeks, 
by  the  same  ;  Romans,  by  Mr.  E.  H.  Alton,  F.T.C.D.,  and  Prof. 
Goligher.  Arrangements  are  also  being  made  for  a  volume  on  the 
Ancient  Egyptians. 

196 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

to  unification  in  teaching  has  been  growing.  It  was 
shown  in  the  medical  profession  some  years  ago  by  an 
agitation  for  some  uniform  system  of  examination,  but 
I  do  not  know  how  that  ended.  Then  there  is  the  pres- 
ent Government's  Education  Bill,  dropped  for  the  time 
being,  which  takes  away  such  small  variety  as  arose  from 
school-board  management.  And  there  is  the  endeavour 
to  unify  by  introducing  the  ecclesiastical  element  more 
widely  or,  indeed,  universally.  Private  schools  are  be- 
ing put  more  and  more  to  disadvantage,  so  that  they  are 
in  course  of  being  crushed  out,  and  there  results  an  in- 
crease of  uniformity.  Moreover,  I  remember  a  while  ago 
there  was  a  meeting  of  Head-masters  of  public  schools, 
at  which  something  like  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Gov- 
ernment to  bring  them  all  under  some  kind  of  State  con- 
trol— again  to  unify  the  system.  I  wish  to  illustrate  the 
universal  tendency  towards  regimentation.1 

He  returned  to  Brighton  early  in  September,  feeling 
so  much  stronger  that  he  contemplated  taking  a  fortnight 
in  London — an  idea  which,  however,  he  had  not  strength 
to  carry  out. 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  (September,  1901), 
introducing  Dr.  Stanton  Coit,  the  editor  of  Ethics,  in- 
duced Spencer  to  subscribe  towards  the  Ethical  Lectures 
Fund,  while  adhering  to  the  view  expressed  in  1899  as 
to  the  qualifications  of  the  lecturers.2  He  even  assented 
to  allow  his  name  to  be  given  to  one  of  the  lectureships. 
His  misgivings  about  the  scheme  presently  re-appeared 
in  another  form,  as  one  learns  from  a  letter  to  Dr.  Coit 
in  November. 

1  Facts  and  Comments,  p.  140.     In  April  following  he  wrote  to 
several   London   papers,   recalling   a   saying  of   Lord   Salisbury's 
that  "their  aim  must  be  to  capture  the  Board  Schools."     "That 
which  was  then  set  forth  as  an  aim  is  being  now  carried  out." 

2  Supra,  chap,  xxv.,  p.  144. 

197 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

The  drift  of  the  articles  in  your  periodical,  Ethics 
.  .  .  opens  my  eyes  to  the  certainty  that  there  will  be 
no  sufficient  agreement  in  the  ethical  views  to  be  prop- 
agated by  ethical  societies.  ...  So  clearly  do  I  see  that 
some  of  the  views  enunciated  will  be  views  from  which  I 
profoundly  dissent,  that  I  must  ask  you  for  an  abandon- 
ment of  the  proposal  to  give  my  name  to  a  lectureship. 

In  another  letter  to  Dr.  Coit  (1  March,  1902)  he  says: 
"  I  cannot  without  self-stultification  continue  to  co- 
operate in  any  way,  and  I  must  therefore  request  that 
my  name  may  be  erased  from  the  list  of  subscribers  to 
the  fund."  But  he  was  careful  to  add  that  his  "  dissent 
from  the  social  ideals,  which  the  Ethical  movement,  as 
now  directed,  will  diffuse,  must  not  be  taken  as  evidence 
of  contentment  with  present  social  arrangements." 

His  impatience  as  a  reader,  to  which  he  so  frequently 
alludes,  was  sometimes  traceable  to  intellectual  dissent, 
as  in  the  case  of  Kant's  Critique,  sometimes  to  emotional 
or  moral  aversion,  as  in  the  case  of  Carlyle.  In  which- 
ever of  those  two  ways  his  further  acquaintance  with  a 
book  was  put  a  stop  to,  the  result,  as  far  as  concerned 
his  estimate  of  the  author's  works,  was  the  same.  In- 
stead of  keeping  his  judgment  in  suspense,  he  was  apt 
to  form  a  very  decided  opinion,  which  in  after  life  he 
seldom  reconsidered.  This  trait  was  exemplified  when 
Mr.  Collins  asked  what  he  thought  of  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson. 

To  F.  HOWARD  COLLINS. 

18  October,  1901. 

Your  question  about  Stevenson  I  answer  just  after 
having  listened  to  a  review  of  his  life  in  the  Times.     I 
have  read  very  little  of  him.     I  began  to  read  many 
198 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

years  ago  Travels  with  a  Donkey  in  the  Cevennes,  but 
was  so  disgusted  with  his  treatment  of  the  donkey  that 
I  gave  it  up  quickly  and  never  looked  into  another  of 
his  books  for  many  years. 

His  opinions  as  to  the  value  of  learned  Academies  had 
long  been  well-known.  It  was,  therefore,  from  a  feeling 
of  the  courtesy  due  to  an  author  of  distinction,  rather 
than  from  any  expectation  of  receiving  a  favourable 
response,  that  he  was  invited  to  join  the  movement  for 
the  institution  of  a  British  Academy  of  Letters. 

To  SIR  E.  MAUNDE  THOMPSON. 

20  November,  1901. 

I  am  obliged  by  the  invitation  made  by  the  sub-com- 
mittee you  name  to  be  one  of  those  to  receive  the  charter 
of  the  proposed  British  Academy  of  Letters.  I  must  be 
excused,  however,  if  I  do  not  accept  the  invitation.  .  .  . 
I  have,  in  contesting  the  views  of  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold, 
who  wished  for  an  English  Academy,  given  expression 
to  sundry  objections,  and  I  still  hold  those  objections  to 
be  valid. 

Sir  Joseph  Dalton  Hooker,  Lord  Avebury,  and  Spen- 
cer were  the  sole  survivors  of  the  X  Club;  but  they 
rarely  met  in  these  years.  Occasionally  letters  passed 
between  them. 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

16  November,  1901. 

It  is  a  long,  long  time  since  any  news  passed  between 
us — a  year  and  a-half,  I  think.  Superfluous  letter  writ- 
ing is  at  your  time  of  life,  and  even  at  mine,  a  thing  to 
be  avoided;  but  still,  I  should  like  to  have  a  few  lines 
telling  me  how  you  fare  in  your  contest  with  the  inevita- 
199 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

ble.  ...  I  am  taking  my  daily  drives  and  doing  a  fair 
amount  of  work. 


A  sentence  in  Sir  Joseph  Hooker's  reply — "  You  have 
held,  and  still  hold,  a  big  grip  on  my  life  " — shows  how 
strong  the  bond  of  their  friendship  was. 

FROM  LORD  AVEBURY. 

25  January,  1902. 

You  may  have  seen  that  the  Committee  of  the  Society 
of  Authors,  over  which  I  have  the  honour  of  presiding, 
have  suggested  your  name  as  the  one  we  should  put  for- 
ward from  England  for  the  Nobel  prize. 

The  suggestion  I  may  add  has  been  cordially  received. 

As  one  of  your  oldest  friends  it  has  been  a  great  pleas- 
ure to  me  to  take  a  part  in  endeavouring  to  secure  for 
you  this  well  merited  recognition. 

Spencer's  name  was  forwarded  to  the  Swedish  Acad- 
emy, but  the  prize  was  not  awarded  to  him. 

He  was  trying  to  answer  the  question,  "  What  should 
the  Sceptic  say  to  Believers?  "* 

To  MRS.  SIDNEY  WEBB. 

14  February,  1902. 

My  special  motive  for  writing  is  to  ask  whether  you 
did  not  once  tell  me  that  your  girlhood  was  often  made 
miserable  by  your  religious  convictions — by  the  thoughts 
of  hell  which  had  been  instilled  into  you.  And  my  rea- 
son for  asking  this  is  that  I  am  just  now  about  to  say  a 
little  upon  the  difficulty  of  the  agnostic  in  dealing  with 
others — when  to  leave  them  alone  and  when  to  attempt 
to  change  their  convictions.  There  are  various  cases, 

1  Facts  and  Comments,  p.  292. 
200 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

and  I  want  to  say  a  little  about  each  kind.  There  is,  I 
believe,  a  good  deal  of  religious  despondency,  and  not 
a  little  religious  insanity,  and  all  this  evil  has  to  be  set 
off  against  what  may  be  said  on  the  other  side. 


Facts  and  Comments  was  published  in  London  and 
New  York  on  April  25,  1902. 

To  ALEXANDER  BAIN. 

25  April,  1902. 

I  bait  my  hook  with  a  book  in  the  hope  of  catching  a 
letter.  You  either  have  received  or  will  shortly  receive 
a  copy  of  Facts  and  Comments,  which  is  my  last  book, 
written  during  these  two  years  at  the  rate  of  ten  lines 
a  day. 

I  have  heard  nothing  of  you  for  a  long  time  save  the 
accounts  which  Duncan  has  given  me  on  the  occasions 
of  his  visits  down  here.  You,  too,  as  I  gather,  are  much 
invalided,  but  are  still  able  to  take  a  drive  daily.  This 
unfortunately  I  cannot  do.  .  .  . 

I  not  unfrequently  think  of  the  disgust  you  must  feel 
at  the  fate  which  has  overtaken  Mind.  That  you,  after 
establishing  the  thing  and  maintaining  it  for  so  many 
years  at  your  own  cost,  should  now  find  it  turned  into 
an  organ  for  German  idealism  must  be  extremely  ex- 
asperating. .  .  .  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have  been  cap- 
tured by  this  old-world  nonsense.  What  about  Scot- 
land? I  suppose  Hegelianism  is  rife  there  also. 

As  friend  after  friend  was  removed  by  death,  Dr. 
Bain,  like  Spencer,  cherished  all  the  more  warmly  tokens 
of  fellowship  from  those  that  survived.  "  I  never  saw 
such  a  beaming  smile  on  Dr.  Bain's  face  as  when  he 
showed  it  [the  above  letter]  to  me,"  said  his  wife  to  the 
201 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

present  writer.  "  He  was  evidently  extremely  pleased 
to  hear  from  Mr.  Spencer,  and  Mr.  Spencer's  sympathy 
in  connection  with  Mind  was  most  highly  valued." 

Next  day  Spencer  wrote  to  Professor  Masson  in  a 
similar  strain. 


I  suppose  Hegelianism  is  rife  in  Edinburgh  as  it  is  in 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  This  is  one  of  those  inevitable 
rhythms  which  pervade  opinion,  philosophical  and  other, 
in  common  with  things  at  large.  But  our  Hegelianism, 
or  German  Idealism  in  England,  is  really  the  last  refuge 
of  the  so-called  orthodox.  As  I  have  somewhere  said, 
what  could  be  a  better  defence  for  incredible  dogmas 
than  behind  unthinkable  propositions? 

In  December  previous  he  had  written  to  the  Editor  of 
Mind,  with  reference  to  the  promise  made  to  Professor 
Sidgwick  at  the  time  Mind  changed  hands,  guaranteeing 
his  financial  support. 

Since  that  time  Mind  has  been  becoming  more  and 
more  conspicuously  an  organ  of  the  Hegelians,  or  of 
German  Idealism.  The  result  was  that,  just  before  my 
first  annual  subscription  became  due,  I  wrote  to  my 
bankers  to  erase  my  name  as  a  subscriber.  Of  course  I 
should  regard  it  as  quite  appropriate  that  each  school  of 
philosophic  thought  should  have  its  say,  but  of  late  one 
school  has  been  having  very  much  more  say  than  the 
rest.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  I  should  aid  the  sur- 
vival of  a  periodical  so  largely  devoted  to  the  expression 
of  views  diametrically  opposed  to  my  own. 


The  appearance  of  his  last  book  just  two  days  before 
his  eighty-second  birthday  lent  additional  meaning  and 
202 


HIS  LAST  BOOK 

fervour  to  the  annual  greetings.1    Thus  Lord  Hobhouse 
wrote : — 


Though,  alas !  the  generation  is  f reward ;  and  some  of 
your  good  seed  has  been  devoured  by  fowls  of  the  air; 
and  some  fallen  on  barren  rock;  and  some  choked  by 
thorns;  a  great  deal  has  fallen  on  good  ground,  and  has 
brought  forth  fruit  manifold,  and  will  assuredly  bring 
forth  more  in  more  favourable  seasons. 


To  LORD  HOBHOUSE. 

4  May,  1902. 

Among  the  many  congratulations  received  on  the  occa- 
sion of  my  eighty-second  birthday  I  can  say  very  sin- 
cerely that  none  have  been  so  appropriate,  and  therefore 
so  pleasurable  to  me,  as  that  for  which  I  have  to  thank 
you. 

It  is,  as  you  say,  doubtful  whether  the  event  itself  is 
one  to  be  rejoiced  over,  but  you  express  my  own  feeling 
fully,  when  you  say  that  it  is  a  matter  of  rejoicing  to 
me  that  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  complete  the  work, 
which  half  a  century  ago  I  conceived  and  soon  after 
definitely  undertook.  Some  small  aims  of  no  great  mo- 
ment remain  unfulfilled;  but,  passing  these  by,  I  have 
the  satisfaction,  which  I  suppose  is  rare,  of  having  done 
what  I  proposed  to  do;  and  it  adds  to  this  satisfaction 
to  receive  this  expression  of  your  sympathy. 

You  too  have  been  working  towards  ends  which  the 
course  of  things  is  thwarting,  and  we  must  both  be  con- 
tent with  contemplating  a  remoter  time  when  good  ef- 
forts made  now  will  have  some  effects,  though  they  may 
be  infinitesimal. 

1  Among  the  greetings  from  abroad  was  the  usual  letter  and 
birthday  gift  from  M.  Geza  Schulek,  of  Buda  Pesth.  Three  years 
before  this  date  he  and  his  wife  had  come  to  England  expressly 
to  see  Spencer  for  a  few  minutes. 

203 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

An  envelope,  containing  a  lock  of  his  hair,  encloses 
also  a  note,  of  which  the  following  is  a  facsimile: — 


204 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

(April,  1902— December,  1903) 

Facts  and  Comments  had  been  definitely  announced 
as  his  last  book.  This  circumstance,  together  with  the 
varied  nature  and  contentious  character  of  the  work, 
tended  to  excite  more  than  the  usual  interest.  Professor 
Masson  thought  it  "  eminently  readable  and  interesting 
— none  the  less  that  much  of  it  is  provocative  of  dissent, 
and  is  sure  to  be  protested  against  in  various  quarters. 
I  refer  especially  to  the  questions  concerning  the  war 
and  other  present-day  questions.  If  I  say  that  here  and 
there  I  am  among  the  dissenters  in  this  department,  that 
will  not,  I  am  sure,  distress  you  much."  Sir  Joseph 
Dalton  Hooker  was  a  dissenter,  or  at  least  a  partial  dis- 
senter, about  the  war.  Professor  Bain  thought  the 
"  showing  up  of  Matthew  Arnold's  absurd  claim  for  the 
State-Church  as  the  exclusive  nursery  of  men  of  genius 
was  a  very  deserved  and  important  correction.  But 
perhaps  the  part  of  the  book  that  aroused  my  deepest 
interest  was  your  concluding  remarks  on  Ultimate  Ques- 
tions." While  recognising  it  as  "the  conclusion  of 
strenuous,  honourable,  consistent  work,"  the  Times 
noted  in  these  "  slight,  sketchy,  and  imperfect  "  utter- 
ances "  a  tone  of  persistent  egotism,"  too  great  to  be 
quite  excusable.  The  essay  on  "  Some  Light  on  Use-In- 
heritance," "  has  the  charm  of  copious  and  felicitous 
205 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

illustration  in  which  Mr.  Spencer  is  unsurpassed." 
' '  We  should  have  liked  the  latest  words  of  one  who  has 
deeply  influenced  his  generation  to  be  measured,  calm, 
equitable,  peaceful.  In  some  of  these  essays  are  present 
these  qualities.  .  .  .  But  in  too  many  of  the  Facts  and 
Comments  is  a  tone  of  acerbity."  The  New  York  Sat- 
urday of  May  17  was  gracious  enough  to  excuse  this 
"  excursion  into  the  domain  of  fads,"  on  the  ground 
that  "  a  man  of  eighty-two  is  too  old  to  work  and  may 
play  if  he  likes.  If  in  setting  his  desk  in  order  he  comes 
across  scraps  of  disconnected  literary  output,  which  did 
not  fit  anywhere  in  his  earlier  books,  and  he  chooses  to 
gather  them  into  a  haphazard  collection  .  .  .  why 
should  he  not  do  so?  "  Readers  in  the  United  States 
were  naturally  interested  in  "  A  Few  Americanisms," 
and  were  not  unwilling  to  avail  themselves  of  the  invita- 
tion, conveyed  in  the  last  paragraph  of  the  article,  to 
expose  deteriorations  in  the  English  language  as  spoken 
in  Great  Britain.  Among  the  causes  that  contributed 
to  create  more  than  the  usual  demand  for  the  book  on  the 
Continent,  not  the  least  were  its  denunciations  of  the 
South  African  War:  these  denunciations  seeming  to 
afford  a  justification  for  the  general  dislike  to  Great  Bri- 
tain during  those  years.  So  popular  was  it  in  France 
that  three  translations  were  offered.  In  Germany  more 
than  one  version  was  proposed;  but,  instead  of  translat- 
ing the  whole  book,  selections  were  made  from  it  and 
from  Various  Fragments.  At  one  time  it  looked  as  if 
there  would  be  no  Italian  translation,  Spencer  having 
intimated  that  rather  than  tolerate  the  persistent  repudi- 
ation of  an  author's  rights  he  would  prefer  to  let  the 
book  remain  untranslated.  "  It  is  not  that  I  care  about 
206 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

the  actual  amount  receivable."  In  proof  of  this  he 
handed  over  to  the  translator  his  own  share  of  the 
amount  paid  by  the  publisher.  Russia,  so  long  in  the 
front  rank,  had  years  ago  fallen  behind.  Spencer's 
books  continued  to  be  objects  of  suspicion  to  the  Russian 
authorities,  whose  blundering  ignorance  is  shown  in  the 
Times  of  July  28,  1903.  A  student,  on  being  examined 
for  admission  to  the  University,  was  charged  with  being 
a  socialist,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  seen  in  the 
street  at  the  age  of  15  with  Spencer's  Sociology  under 
his  arm!  Nevertheless,  Facts  and  Comments  appeared 
in  a  Russian  dress  before  it  was  published  in  French  or 
German.1 

In  May,  1902,  he  went  on  what  was  to  be  his  last  visit 
to  the  country,  Leith  Vale,  Ockley,  in  Surrey,  being  the 
place  selected.  How  he  enjoyed  himself  was  thus  de- 
scribed at  the  time  by  Mr.  Troughton:  "  Above  all  he 
is  delighted  with  the  multitude  of  song-birds  hereabouts. 
Listening  to  the  birds  the  other  day,  while  sitting  outside 
under  the  verandah  during  a  short  spell  of  sunshine,  Mr. 
Spencer  said,  '  This  is  what  I  have  been  looking  forward 
to  for  the  last  six  months. '  ' '  His  absence  from  Brigh- 
ton deprived  him  of  the  pleasure  of  meeting  one  with 
whom  he  had  corresponded  a  great  deal,  but  whom  he 
had  never  seen — the  Dowager  Countess  of  Portsmouth, 
who  first  became  interested  in  him  through  her  brother, 
the  Hon.  Auberon  Herbert. 

1  Since  the  year  1865,  when  proposals  to  translate  his  books  were 
first  thought  of,  most  of  Spencer's  principal  works  had  been 
rendered  into  Russian,  French,  German  and  Italian.  Portions  of 
them  had  also  been  translated  into  almost  all  the  other  languages 
of  Europe,  as  well  as  into  the  chief  languages  of  India  and  into 
Japanese  and  Chinese.  During  his  last  years  translations  of 
Education  into  Arabic  and  Mohawk  were  mentioned. 

207 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  THE  DOWAGER  COUNTESS  OP  PORTSMOUTH. 

6  June,  1902. 

I  am  very  unfortunate.  Some  years  ago  you  honoured 
me  with  a  call  at  Avenue  Road,  and  I  was  out.  And 
now  that  you  are  about  to  visit  Brighton  I  am  away  from 
there.  .  .  . 

The  contretemps  is  very  provoking,  since  I  should 
have  been  greatly  pleased  to  see  one  from  whom  I  have 
received  so  many  kindnesses.  I  fear  I  thus  lose  my  last 
chance,  for  being  now  eighty-two,  the  probability  that 
you  will  again  visit  Brighton  during  my  life  is  but  small. 

To  MRS.  BRAY. 

6  June,  1902. 

Allow  me  at  eighty-two  to  shake  hands  with  you  at 
eighty-eight!  I  say  shake  hands  rather  than  offer  con- 
gratulations, since  you  know  as  well  as  I  do,  or  better, 
that  the  infirmities  and  weariness  of  advanced  years  are 
such  as  render  continuance  of  them  not  a  cause  for  con- 
gratulation. .  .  . 

I  managed  three  weeks  ago  to  get  to  this  place,  which 
is  in  all  respects  charming,  and  I  am  on  the  average 
profiting  by  the  change. 

The  requests  for  contributions  from  his  pen  were 
varied  and  numerous.  He  was  invited  by  the  Danish 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  through  Mr.  Goschen,  the  Brit- 
ish Minister,  to  write  a  short  article  for  a  journal  which 
was  to  be  issued  weekly  during  the  Exposition  Histo- 
rique  de  la  Presse  Danoise,  the  subject  prescribed  being 
an  inquiry  as  to  the  direction  in  which  social  develop- 
ment was  tending — whether  towards  socialism  or  indi- 
vidualism. This  invitation  was  declined  "  because  the 
amount  of  thought  required  would  be  too  great  a  tax." 
The  approaching  Coronation  brought  many  such  appeals. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

A  few  lines  "  on  the  subject  of  the  Trust  in  Atlantic 
Steamships  "  were  solicited  by  one  of  the  London  daily 
papers.  The  Neue  Freie  Presse  was  eager  to  get  a  con- 
tribution for  its  Christmas  number — "  Antisemitism  " 
being  suggested  as  a  topic.  Mr.  Spielmann  begged  for 
a  few  words  on  the  condition  of  the  Jews  in  Roumania. 
The  Giornale  d' Italia  sought  his  opinion  about  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Religious  Orders  in  France.  "  A  few 
words  of  sympathy  and  support  ' '  were  sought  by  a 
small  number  of  people  in  Melbourne,  who  were  form- 
ing a  society  bearing  his  name. 

Peace  had  been  proclaimed  and  there  had  now  to  be 
faced  the  consequences  of  the  war.  The  condition  of 
the  sufferers,  whether  Boers  or  Britons,  aroused  the 
active  sympathy  of  all  parties.  Among  those  who  had 
suffered  most  was  Ex-President  Steyn,  whose  fortune 
and  health  were  completely  shattered  by  his  heroic  ef- 
forts to  save  the  independence  of  his  State.  While  Mr. 
Steyn  was  on  his  way  to  Europe,  to  obtain  the  best  avail- 
able medical  assistance,  Spencer  was  asked  to  give  his 
name  to  a  movement  to  send  some  token  of  the  sympathy 
and  admiration  of  well-wishers.  He  readily  assented  on 
condition  that  the  matter  would  be  kept  entirely  private, 
and  that  the  secretarial  work  would  be  done  by  the 
friend  who  had  made  the  suggestion. 

The  gift  was  transmitted  with  the  following  letter: — 

To  EX-PRESIDENT  STEYN. 

10  August,  1902. 

A  few  friends  in  England  have  paid  me  the  compli- 
ment of  making  me  the  medium  for  transmitting  to  you 
the  accompanying  testimonial  of  their  sympathy  and 
209 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

high  admiration.  They  believe,  as  I  do,  that  nowhere 
among  historic  characters  is  there  to  be  found  one  whose 
persistence  in  upholding  a  cause  he  believed  to  be  right 
has  been  more  conspicuous.  Even  enemies  must  admit 
that  sacrifices  of  position,  property,  and  health,  which 
have  ended  in  a  prostration  so  extreme  as  that  which 
you  now  suffer,  imply  a  heroism  rarely  to  be  found 
among  men.  To  emphasise  their  belief  and  accompany- 
ing admiration,  they  beg  your  acceptance  of  this  proof 
of  their  great  regard,  joining  to  it  the  hope  that  with 
care,  and  the  attention  of  sympathetic  friends,  you  may 
yet  recover. 

Needless  to  say,  this  spontaneous  recognition  of  his 
honesty  of  purpose  and  of  the  self-sacrificing  devotion 
with  which  he  had  pursued  the  course  he  believed  to  be 
right,  was  gratefully  appreciated  by  Mr.  Steyn.  The 
value  of  the  gift  was  enhanced  by  the  medium  through 
whom  it  was  transmitted,  Spencer's  having  been  an  hon- 
oured name  in  South  Africa,  long  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  war. 

Spencer  was  eagerly  waiting  for  public  intimation  of 
some  centre  of  co-operation  for  the  collection  of  sub- 
scriptions to  the  Boer  Fund,  and  represented  to  General 
Botha  and  his  colleagues,  who  were  then  in  London,  the 
impolicy  of  delay. 

To  GENERAL  Louis  BOTHA. 

24  October,  1902. 

I  have  been  both  astonished  and  greatly  annoyed  by 
the  way  in  which  the  Boer  Relief  Fund  has  been  man- 
aged in  England.  We  have  a  maxim,  "  Strike  while 
the  iron  is  hot  ' ' ;  whereas  the  course  pursued  seems  to 
have  been  ' '  Wait  till  the  iron  is  cold  ' ' ! 

If,  immediately  after  your  interview  with  Mr.  Cham- 
210 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

berlain,  there  had  been  an  advertisement,  naming  a  com- 
mittee of  some  three  or  five,  with  an  indication  of  the 
bank  to  which  subscriptions  might  be  paid,  there  would 
at  once  have  been  a  response  from  a  great  many  who 
now  have  become  almost  indifferent  from  mere  lapse  of 
time.  Two  months  have  passed,  and  the  feelings  of  the 
sympathetic  have  been  allowed  to  die  away  before  any- 
thing practical  has  been  done.  .  .  .  The  whole  thing,  in 
my  opinion,  has  been  dreadfully  bungled.  Pray  have 
the  thing  put  in  such  business  form  as  is  always  taken 
by  any  body  which  proposes  to  raise  subscriptions. 

General  Botha  shared  Spencer's  regret  that  so  much 
precious  time  had  been  lost.  But  being  without  expe- 
rience in  circumstances  entirely  new,  he  and  his  brother 
delegates  had  to  be  guided  by  the  advice  of  their  friends. 

A  request  made  by  the  Rationalist  Press  Association 
for  permission  to  publish  a  cheap  reprint  of  the  first 
part  of  First  Principles  was  declined  for  reasons  stated 
in  the  following  letter. 

To  GEORGE  J.  HOLYOAKE. 

26  August,  1902. 

Two  mischiefs  are  apt  to  arise  from  reading  separately 
the  first  part  of  First  Principles:  (1)  Those  who  are 
opposed  to  its  views  conclude  that  the  second  part,  being 
as  they  think  based  upon  the  first,  must  be  equally  op- 
posed to  their  views,  and  even  when  they  have  the  whole 
volume  before  them  they  read  no  further.  I  have  direct 
evidence  that  this  happens.  (2)  Those  who  read  sym- 
pathetically are  liable  to  draw  the  utterly  erroneous  con- 
clusion that  in  Part  I.  is  contained  the  substance  of  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy,  and  that  having  read  it  they  need 
read  no  further. 

There  is  a  mischief  of  another  kind  from  presenting 
the  "  Unknowable  "  apart  from  the  general  system  of 
211 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

things  set  forth  under  the  title  of  "  The  Knowable." 
Those  who  are  led  to  abandon  the  current  creed,  and 
whose  lives  have  given  them  no  knowledge  of  the  natural 
order  of  things  to  fill  the  gap  left,  remain  in  a  state  of 
unstable  equilibrium,  and  are  apt  to  lapse  back  into  one 
or  other  kind  of  superstition — Roman  Catholicism  usu- 
ally. I  personally  know  two  instances  of  this. 

A  month  or  two  later  he  assented  willingly  to  the  issue 
of  a  sixpenny  edition  of  Education.  The  Northumber- 
land Society  for  the  Liberation  of  Education  from  State 
Control,  was  also  permitted  to  reprint  the  chapter  on 
"  National  Education  "  in  Social  Statics. 

The  quantity  of  miscellaneous  correspondence  got 
through  during  the  three  months  spent  in  the  country 
is  astonishing,  when  one  remembers  his  increasing  in- 
firmities— aggravated  by  the  "  unsummerly  summer," 
as  he  calls  it:  "  winter  "  is  the  term  by  which  he  de- 
scribes it  to  Mr.  Carnegie.  "  During  this  sojourn  at 
Leith  Vale,"  writes  Mr.  Troughton,  "  it  became  more 
manifest  than  it  had  been  before  that  he  was  breaking 
up,  physically,  certainly,  and  also  mentally;  but  the 
decay  of  mental  faculty  was  less  marked  than  the  bodily 
decrepitude,  which  seemed  now  to  be  advancing  with 
rapid  strides." 

Points  of  resemblance  between  Spencer's  views  and 
those  of  Rousseau  had  been  touched  upon  in  the  past 
more  frequently  than  Spencer  liked,  owing  to  the  sug- 
gestion conveyed  that  he  had  borrowed  some  of  his  char- 
acteristic doctrines  about  man,  society,  and  education 
from  the  French  writer.  With  regard  to  education  he 
had  been  at  pains  to  point  out  to  M.  Gabriel  Compayre 
in  October,  1901,  that  he  had  never  read  Emtte,  and 
212 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

owed  none  of  his  ideas  on  education  to  it.  And,  now, 
when  Mr.  Hudson  sought  permission  to  dedicate  a  forth- 
coming book  on  Rousseau  to  him,  he  felt  constrained  to 
refuse. 

To  W.  H.  HUDSON. 

7  January,  1903. 

I  regret  to  say  "  No  "  to  any  proposal  you  make,  but 
I  cannot  consent  to  the  dedication  of  your  book  on  Rous- 
seau to  me.  There  are  several  kindred  reasons  for  this. 

You  probably  remember  the  controversy  with  Huxley 
in  the  Times  ten  years  ago  or  more.  .  .  .  One  of  his 
letters  contained  the  assertion  that  I  had  adopted  my 
political  views  from  Rousseau.  Such  a  dedication  as 
you  name  would  tend  to  verify  this  wholly  baseless  as- 
sertion. .  .  .  His  cardinal  political  principle,  so  far  as 
I  know  it  at  second  hand,  I  reject. 

He  is  said  to  have  taught  the  primitive  equality  of 
men.  This  I  hold  to  be  absurd,  and  my  own  doctrine 
implies  no  such  belief,  which  is  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  evolutionary  doctrine — the  struggle  for  existence 
and  survival  of  the  fittest. 

Not  the  equality  of  men,  but  the  equality  of  their 
claims  to  make  the  best  of  themselves  within  the  limits 
mutually  produced,  has  all  along  been  my  principle.  .  .  . 

The  equality  alleged  [in  Social  Statics]  is  not  among 
men  themselves,  but  among  their  claims  to  equally-lim- 
ited spheres  for  the  exercise  of  their  faculties :  an  utterly 
different  proposition.  Huxley  confused  the  two  and 
spread  the  confusion,  and  I  am  anxious  that  it  should 
not  be  further  spread.  Pray,  if  you  have  occasion  to 
refer  to  my  views,  take  care  to  emphasise  this  distinc- 
tion. 

His  interest  in  affairs  of  public  moment  withstood  to 
the  last  the  advance  of  the  infirmities  of  age. 
213 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  FREDERIC  HARRISON. 

5  March,  1903. 

Doubtless  you  remember  the  meeting  held  many  years 
ago  a  propos  of  the  disestablishment  and  disendow- 
ment  of  the  Church,1  and  doubtless  you  remember  that 
you  were  commissioned  to  draw  up  the  heads  of  a  bill 
setting  forth  the  aims  of  those  represented  by  the 
meeting,  among  whom,  by  the  way,  was  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain (!). 

I  presume  you  have  a  copy  of  this  draft  bill  in  printed 
form.  The  question  is  again  coming  to  the  front,  and 
this  meeting  of  Free  Churches  at  Brighton  may  be  the 
occasion  for  bringing  it  to  the  front.  Would  it  not  be 
well  for  you  to  put  before  the  leaders  this  same  docu- 
ment as  indicating  what  were,  and  are  still,  I  believe, 
the  aims  of  those  who  moved  in  the  matter.  .  .  . 

My  distinct  impression  is  that  all  property  accruing  to 
the  Church  after  the  Reformation  was  to  remain  with 
the  Church;  but  that  all  property,  existing  as  its  prop- 
erty before  the  Reformation,  was  to  revert  to  the  State 
and  to  be  used  for  such  secular  or  other  purposes  as 
might  be  generally  or  locally  decided. 

The  occasion  is  a  good  one  for  dissipating  the  injuri- 
ous error,  which  is  widespread,  that  those  who  seek  to 
disestablish  desire  possession  of  the  whole  of  the  Church 
property,  old  and  new. 

The  final  occasion  on  which  he  was  offered  an  academic 
title  was  in  the  spring  of  1903,  when  the  University  of 
London  sought  to  confer  on  him  the  honorary  De- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Literature.  It  was  intimated  to  him 
that  the  degree  was  to  be  conferred  on  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales,  himself,  and  on  not  more  than  two 
others. 

1  Autobiography,  ii.,  303-305. 

214 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

To  SIR  A.  W.  RUCKER,  PRINCIPAL  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OP 
LONDON. 

March,  1903. 

I  greatly  regret  that  acceptance  of  the  honour,  which 
so  distinguished  a  body  as  the  Senate  of  the  University 
of  London  proposes  to  confer  upon  me,  should  for  any 
reasons  be  excluded. 

In  the  first  place,  my  state  of  health  has  prevented  me 
from  leaving  the  house  since  last  August.  .  .  . 

Even  should  the  Senate,  prompted  by  kind  considera- 
tion on  my  behalf,  dispense  with  my  presence,  there 
would  still  remain  an  insurmountable  difficulty.  For  a 
third  of  a  century,  during  which  honorary  titles,  home 
and  foreign,  have  from  time  to  time  been  offered  to  me, 
I  have,  in  pursuance  of  the  belief  that,  though  ap- 
parently beneficial  to  literature  and  science,  they  are 
in  the  end  injurious,  declined  the  offers.  Were  I  now 
to  accept  the  distinction  which  the  Senate  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  London  is  so  good  as  to  hold  out  to  me, 
these  bodies,  including  sundry  British  and  foreign  uni- 
versities and  various  continental  academies,  which  have 
proposed  to  accord  me  doctorships  and  memberships, 
would  be  thereby  slighted  and  an  act,  which  would  mani- 
festly inflict  upon  them  something  approaching  to  an 
insult,  is  one  which  I  naturally  cannot  bring  myself 
to  do. 

Of  course,  my  regret  that  I  am  thus  prevented  from 
accepting  the  honour  offered  by  the  eminent  men 'con- 
stituting the  Senate  is  increased  by  the  consciousness 
that  the  occasion  is  quite  a  special  one. 


Though  unwilling  to  accept  honours  for  himself,  he 
was  always  ready  to  join  in  proposals  to  do  honour  to 
those  who  deserved  it.  When  it  was  proposed  to  give  a 
reception  to  Mr.  Holyoake  on  his  eighty-sixth  birthday, 
he  wrote : 

215 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

To  C.  FLETCHER  SMITH. 

28  March,  1903. 

I  have  not  been  out  of  doors  since  last  August,  and  as 
Mr.  Holyoake  knows,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  join  in 
the  reception  to  be  given  to  him  on  his  86th  birthday.  I 
can  do  nothing  more  than  express  my  warm  feeling  of 
concurrence. 

Not  dwelling  upon  his  intellectual  capacity,  which  is 
high,  I  would  emphasise  my  appreciation  of  his  courage, 
sincerity,  truthfulness,  philanthropy,  and  unwearying 
perseverance.  Such  a  combination  of  these  qualities  it 
will,  I  think,  be  difficult  to  find. 

Though  unable  to  write  anything  which  the  Indus- 
trial Freedom  League  might  distribute  as  a  leaflet,  with 
a  view  to  combat  the  growing  tendency  of  municipali- 
ties to  embark  on  business  undertakings,  he  wrote  to 
Lord  Avebury:  "  I  need  hardly  say  how  fully  I  sympa- 
thise with  the  aims  of  the  Council  and  how  energetically 
I  should  have  co-operated  had  it  been  possible.  I  shall 
willingly  contribute  to  the  funds,  if  some  fit  form  is  sent 
to  me. ' '  The  state  of  his  health  probably  prevented  him 
complying  with  the  request  to  send  to  Le  Matin  a  message 
of  good  will  to  the  French  on  the  eve  of  the  King's  visit 
to  Paris ;  but  a  similar  request,  made  before  M.  Loubet  's 
visit  to  London  in  July,  was  responded  to : 

All  advocates  of  peace  (he  wrote) — all  who  believe 
that  future  civilisation  is  bound  up  with  the  friendship 
of  nations — will  rejoice  in  the  visit  to  England  of  a 
Frenchman  who  represents  France;  and  I,  in  common 
with  them,  hope  that  his  reception  will  prove  that  the 
general  feeling  'in  England  expresses  something  more 
than  the  official  ceremonies  of  the  occasion. 
216 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

With  an  effort  he  roused  himself  to  send  a  message 
of  encouragement  to  the  Young  Scots  Society,  "  which 
seeks  to  revive  Liberal  ideals  at  a  time  when  Liberal 
ideals  have  been  forgotten." 

Most  of  his  acknowledgments  of  birthday  congratula- 
tions this  year  included  the  refrain :  ' '  I  feel  now  that 
the  prolongation  of  a  feeble  old  age  is  not  a  matter  for 
congratulation — rather  for  condolence."  All  through 
the  winter  he  had  hardly  ever  stirred  from  his  room ;  and 
although  the  return  of  spring  brought  back  thoughts  of 
the  country,  once  and  only  once  did  he  express  the  hope 
of  getting  there. 

He  had  "a  strong  prejudice  against  professional  nurses 
(writes  Mr.  Troughton),  and  it  was  not  until  it  became 
absolutely  necessary  that  he  consented  to  have  one  to 
look  after  him.  Feeble  and  emaciated  as  his  frame  now 
was,  he  had  lost  little  of  that  strength  of  will  which 
had  always  been  a  marked  trait  with  him,  and  both 
nurses  and  doctors  found  him  a  by  no  means  easy  patient 
to  deal  with  owing  to  this.  No  less  emphatic  was  the 
assertion  of  scepticism  in  regard  to  the  treatment  or- 
dered by  the  doctor.  He  could  not  put  himself  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  another;  he  wanted  to  know  the  reason 
for  this,  that,  or  the  other,  mode  of  treatment  recom- 
mended; the  contents  and  probable  effects  of  the  pre- 
scribed medicines  would  be  discussed  at  length,  and  if 
the  use  of  them  did  not  conform  to  his  ideas  he  ignored 
them. 

Marked  symptoms  of  aphasia  manifested  themselves 
during  the  second  week  of  May,  along  with  hallucina- 
tions. While  he  was  in  this  condition  Dr.  Charlton  Bas- 
tian,  in  response  to  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Troughton, 
came  to  see  him ;  but,  under  the  impression  that  the  visit 
217 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

was  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  some  biological  ques- 
tion, he  became  excited  and  begged  to  be  left  alone.  A 
day  or  two  after,  when  he  began  to  get  better,  he  had 
only  a  vague  recollection  of  the  brusque  reception  he  had 
given  to  his  friend.  When  his  secretary  quietly  hinted 
at  the  purpose  of  the  visit,  he  was  filled  with  remorse; 
and  dictated  an  apology  "  for  the  rude  way  in  which 
I  met  your  request  for  a  little  conversation. ' '  A  day  or 
two  after  he  wrote  again :  ' '  It  was  a  great  relief  to 
me  to  receive  your  kind  note,  for  I  had  been  dwell- 
ing in  the  fear  that  you  would  be  offended,  and  justi- 
fiably offended."  In  a  similar  vein  he  apologised  on 
one  occasion  to  his  medical  attendant:  "  Please 
erase  from  your  memory  sundry  manifestations  of  my 
explosiveness  and  lack  of  judgment  which  you  saw  last 
night. ' ' 

His  recuperative  power  was  wonderful.  Before  many 
days  he  was  again  able  to  undertake  correspondence 
with  his  more  intimate  friends.  Miss  Flora  Smith  had 
sent  him  flowers  grown  at  Ardtornish,  with  the  message : 
"  I  thought  it  might  be  a  pleasure  to  you  to  have  them 
from  the  place  where  we  have  with  you  spent  so  many 
happy  days."  This  touched  a  responsive  note.  "  The 
scent  of  flowers  coming  from  Ardtornish  hills  had  a 
double  pleasantness — the  general  pleasantness  of  flowers 
from  the  hills,  and  the  special  pleasantness  of  flowers 
from  the  Ardtornish  hills.  To  me,  as  to  you,  they  are  re- 
minders of  long  past  pleasures,  and  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  you  and  your  sisters  value  them  in  that  way,  and 
pleased  to  think  that  my  presence  in  those  past  times 
was  not  a  disagreeable  accompaniment  in  the  thought 
of  these  pleasures." 

218 


SPENCEE'S  STUDY  AND  BEDEOOM  AT  No.  5  PERCIVAL 
TEEEACE,  BRIGHTON. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

To  SIR  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER. 

6  June,  1903. 

It  was  extremely  gratifying  to  receive  through  Mr. 
Scott  your  kind  inquiry.  As  one's  links  with  life  be- 
come fewer  and  fewer  each  becomes  relatively  more  valu- 
able, and  the  indication  that  it  still  exists  excites  rela- 
tively increasing  pleasure. 

I  am  very  glad  therefore  once  again  to  feel  the  pulse 
of  my  still-surviving  small  circle  of  friends,  and  glad 
especially  to  feel  the  pulse  of  one  who  had  been  so  good 
a  friend  so  many  years. 

I  should  like  to  have  a  few  lines  giving  me  indications 
of  your  own  state,  and  will  excuse  you,  as  you  will  ex- 
cuse me,  from  writing  at  length. 

Sir  Joseph  Hooker  was  also  extremely  gratified  to  re- 
ceive this  "  evidence  of  abiding  fellow-feeling.  .  .  .  The 
dear  old  X  Club  is  rapidly,  with  us,  I  fear,  approaching 
the  vanishing  point.  How  curious  it  seems,  that  we  who 
were,  I  think,  considerably  the  oldest  members,  should 
be  amongst  the  three  survivors." 

To  MRS.  SIDNEY  WEBB. 

29  June,  1903. 

Friends  when  talking  to  me  about  myself  have  often 
remarked  a  propos  of  my  state  of  health,  that  I  have 
the  consolation  of  remembering  all  that  I  have  done,  and 
that  this  must  be  a  great  set-off  against  all  that  I  have 
to  bear.  This  is  a  natural  mistake,  but  a  profound  mis- 
take. Occasionally,  past  achievements  may  be  said  to  fill 
my  mind — perhaps  once  a  week,  and  then  perhaps  for 
ten  minutes  or  a  quarter  of  an  hour;  but  they  do  not 
form  components  of  consciousness  to  a  greater  extent 
than  this.  Practically,  the  bygones  are  bygones,  and 
the  bygones  of  a  large  kind  do  not  play  much  greater 
parts  in  memory  than  those  of  a  smaller  kind. 

Your  wish  has  recalled  a  conversation  we  had  some 
219 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

years  ago — I  think  when  you  had  come  down  to  see  me 
in  Arundel  Terrace.  Something  led  us  to  talk  about 
meaningless  coincidences,  which  might  be  thought  full  of 
meaning ;  and  I  was  prompted  to  give  you  examples,  two 
of  them  being  known  to  you  personally.  Further,  by 
way  of  making  the  results  very  striking,  to  each  succes- 
sive case  as  I  narrated  it  you  put  down  what  you  con- 
sidered a  rational  estimate  of  the  probabilities  for  and 
against  such  a  thing  occurring  to  the  same  person  within 
say  twenty  years ;  and  on  compounding  the  numbers  the 
chances  against  seemed  astounding. 

Thoughts  of  this  kind  are  much  more  apt  to  intrude 
themselves  than  are  thoughts  of  the  kind  you  refer  to; 
and  the  average  colour  of  the  whole  consciousness  pro- 
duced is  grey. 

How  pleasant  it  would  be  if  you  were  living  so  close 
at  hand  that  you  could  come  in  frequently  for  a  few 
minutes !  But  that  is  one  of  the  things  not  to  be  hoped 
for. 

FROM  ALEXANDER  BAIN. 

8  June,  1903. 

I  have  heard  with  deep  regret,  of  your  continued 
feeble  health  and  confinement  to  bed.  You  have  never 
been  so  dependent  upon  exercise  as  I  am,  still  you 
must  feel  very  weak  and  depressed.  I  earnestly  hope 
you  have  no  actual  pain,  and  can  take  some  interest 
in  passing  events.  ...  I  send  my  long-delayed  volume 
of  reprints.  .  .  .  Accept  my  deep  sympathy. 

To  ALEXANDER  BAIN. 

13  June,  1903. 

Very  many  thanks  for  your  most  kind  and  sympa- 
thetic letter,  and  thanks  also  for  your  wishes  for  my 
freedom  from  pain.  Until  recently  I  could  have  said 
yes,  but  of  late  spasms  have  from  time  to  time  made 
my  life  difficult  to  bear. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

Knowing  that  your  expressions  of  fellow-feeling  are 
genuine  I  shall  excuse  myself  from  running  further  risks 
by  writing  at  greater  length. 

This  was  the  last  exchange  of  letters  between  them. 
Professor  Bain  died  on  18th  September.  In  intimating 
this  to  Spencer,  at  Mrs.  Bain's  request,  Professor  W.  L. 
Davidson  added :  "  I  should  like  to  say  from  myself  that 
you  were  much  in  his  thoughts  of  late,  and  that  he  fre- 
quently expressed  his  sympathy  with  you  in  your  illness. 
His  kindness  of  heart  showed  itself  to  the  very  last  in 
his  thoughtfulness  for  others." 

To  WILLIAM  L.  DAVIDSON. 

22  September,  1903. 

On  the  loss  of  a  companion  one  may,  of  course,  fitly 
condole  with  Mrs.  Bain,  but  otherwise  I  do  not  see  that 
the  event  is  much  cause  for  regret.  He  had  done  his 
work  and  lived  his  life,  and  such  portion  of  it  as  re- 
mained could  be  little  more  than  continued  tolerance. 
My  feeling  may  be  judged  when  I  say  that  I  envy  him. 

I  have  on  sundry  occasions  recognised  the  sympathetic 
nature  on  which  you  remark,  and,  I  think,  manifestar 
tions  of  it  had  become  more  pronounced  in  the  latter 
parts  of  his  life. 

"  You  come  to  me  every  day  in  thought,"  wrote  Mr. 
Carnegie  (14  September),  "  and  the  everlasting 
'  Why?  '  intrudes.  .  .  .  Mr.  Morley  comes  in  a  day  or 
two  and  you  will,  as  usual,  I  am  sure,  be  the  centre 
of  many  talks. ' ' 

To  ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

18  September,  1903. 

The  Why?  and  the  Why?  and  the  Why?  are  questions 
which  press  ever  more  and  more  as  the  years  go  by.  .  .  . 
221 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

If  means  of  locomotion  sufficed  to  carry  me  to  Skibo 
without  jolts — if  Mr.  Spencer's  air-ship  had  been  suffi- 
ciently perfected,  which  one  may  dream  of,  but  nothing 
more — I  should  have  liked  to  join  John  Morley  in  seeing 
your  feudal  stronghold  (!)  ... 

You  have  forbidden  thanks  for  grouse:  but  some 
words  expressing  thanks  for  those  which  arrived  the 
other  day  must  be  added  to  the  above :  to  which  must  be 
joined  thanks  for  the  beautiful  sea-trout,  which  I  think 
are  more  highly  coloured  in  their  flesh  than  any  I  can 
remember — more  highly  coloured  than  those  I  have  my- 
self habitually  caught  at  Ardtornish. 

To  THE  RIGHT  HON.  JOHN  MOSLEY. 

16  September,  1903. 

When  I  tell  you  that  a  few  days  ago  I  consulted  with 
one  of  my  executors  respecting  details  of  my  funeral, 
you  will  see  that  I  contemplate  the  end  of  this  descent 
as  being  not  far  off — an  end  to  which  I  look  forward  with 
satisfaction.  The  contemplation  of  this  end  prompts  me 
to  ask  a  favour  of  you. 

I  have  directed  that  my  remains  shall  be  cremated, 
and  I  have  as  you  will  naturally  suppose  interdicted 
any  such  ceremony  as  is  performed  over  the  bodies  or 
ashes  of  those  who  adhere  to  the  current  creed. 

At  the  same  time,  I  do  not  like  the  thought  of  entire 
silence,  and  should  be  glad  were  there  given  a  brief 
address  by  a  friend.  On  looking  round  among  my 
friends  you  stand  out  above  others  as  one  from  whom 
words  would  come  most  fitly;  partly,  because  of  our 
long  friendship,  partly,  because  of  the  kinship  of  senti- 
ment existing  between  us,  and  partly,  because  of  the 
general  likeness  of  ideas  which  distinguishes  us  from 
the  world  at  large.  .  .  . 

Will  you  kindly  undertake  this  service  for  me? 
Should  you  assent,  the  consciousness  that  words  of  fare- 
well would  come  from  one  so  wholly  appropriate  would 
222 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

be  a  satisfaction  to  me  during  the  short  interval  between 
now  and  my  death. 

25  September. — Since  writing  there  has  occurred  to 
me  an  obstacle  to  your  assent  which  may  possibly  prove 
fatal.     Your  next  election  may  be  endangered,  and  if 
you  think  so,  pray  do  not  run  the  risk. 

FROM  THE  RIGHT  HON.  JOHN  MORLEY. 

26  September,  1903. 

I  need  not  tell  you  with  what  feeling  I  received  your 
letter.  The  occasion  for  it  and  the  purpose  of  it  both 
alike  moved  me  deeply.  That  I  should  comply  with  your 
wish,  if  I  survive  you,  is  indeed  most  certain,  and  I  am 
grateful  to  you  for  mentioning  our  long  friendship  and 
our  general  community  of  ideas.  I  shall  always  cherish 
the  recollection  of  your  friendship,  and  I  shall  never  de- 
part from  the  spirit  of  your  ideas. 

Your  letter  found  me  at  Carnegie's.  He  desired  me, 
if  possible,  to  ascertain  from  you  one  or  two  objects 
which  you  might  choose  by  way  of  memorial,  and  he 
would  authorise  me  when  the  time  comes,  to  call  upon 
him  for  the  financial  means  of  carrying  out  whatever 
among  those  objects  should  seem  to  be  most  desirable. 

I  thank  you,  my  dear  Spencer,  for  this  high  mark  of 
your  confidence. 

26  September. — It  is  most  considerate  of  you  to  think 
of  this  obstacle.     But  I  do  not  suppose  that  my  good 
friends,  though  staunch  presbyterians,  could  have  any 
notion  of  curtailing  my  freedom,  and  if  they  had,  I 
should  resist  it  without  much  fear. 

To  THE  RIGHT  HON.  JOHN  MORLEY. 

27  September,  1903. 

I  thank  you  most  heartily  for  your  assent,  and  the 
more  so  because  it  is  expressed  in  such  a  way  as  to 
223 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

leave  me  in  no  doubt  respecting  the  willingness  with 
which  it  is  given.  .  .  .  Nothing  suggests  last  words  at 
present.  But  should  there  presently  come  a  time  when 
life  is  obviously  ebbing,  your  face  is  one  of  those  I 
should  be  most  anxious  to  see. 

P.S. — If  my  second  letter,  which  an  oversight  in  the 
first  made  needful,  should  give  you  the  least  reason  for 
changing  your  reply,  pray  do  it.  That  some  speeches  of 
yours  in  Parliament  should  be  possibly  lost  is  an  evil 
which  I  recognise  as  immeasurably  greater  than  the  al- 
ternative. 

P.S.  2 — Mr.  Carnegie's  request  I  hope  to  fulfil  in  a 
way  that  will  be  satisfactory  to  him. 

The  hope  expressed,  that  he  might  be  able  to  fulfil 
Mr.  Carnegie's  request  to  name  one  or  two  objects  that 
he  might  choose  by  way  of  memorial,  appears  not  to 
have  been  realised,  owing,  probably,  to  his  rapidly  dimin- 
ishing strength.  He  was  feeling  too  heavily  the  burden 
of  years  to  take  up  any  important  matter.  He  could 
do  little  more  than  wish  success  to  School — a  magazine 
which  it  was  proposed  to  start  in  January,  1904. 

To  LAURIE  MAGNUS. 

12  October,  1903. 

A  periodical  which  is  to  adopt  the  conception  of  edu- 
cation I  have  so  long  entertained,  and  which  is  every- 
where implied  in  my  writings  at  large,  cannot  fail  to 
have  my  hearty  good  wishes.  The  only  passage  in  your 
programme  which  calls  for  comment  and  suggests  a  fun- 
damental doubt  is  that  which  commits  me  to  the  belief 
that  the  "  training  of  citizens  and  the  preparation  for 
life  ' '  should  be  undertaken  by  the  State.  Now,  as  from 
the  beginning  I  have,  and  do  still,  maintain  that  the 
State  has  no  such  functions,  and  have  further  maintained 
that  it  is  not  for  a  government  "  to  mould  children  into 
224 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

good  citizens,  using  its  own  discretion  in  settling  what  a 
good  citizen  is,  and  how  the  child  may  be  moulded  into 
one,"  it  appears  to  me  that  my  approval  just  given  is 
practically  cancelled.  Only  if  the  word  "  State  "  is 
omitted  from  the  passage  in  question,  so  reducing  the 
proposition  to  a  self-evident  one,  can  I  endorse  it. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Lecky  severed  one  more  of  the  few 
remaining  links  between  him  and  his  old  life. 

To  MRS.  LECKY. 

25  October,  1903. 

The  praise  of  those  who  are  gone  very  generally  con- 
tains insincerities,  but  among  the  many  things  which, 
were  I  physically  able,  I  might  dictate  from  my  sick  bed, 
I  can  think  of  none  that  are  not  laudatory. 

Intellectually  clear  and  judicial,  Mr.  Lecky  was 
morally  sincere  in  an  extreme  degree,  and  his  devotion 
to  the  setting  forth  of  historic  truth  has  been  conspicu- 
ous to  me  as  to  every  one. 

The  pains  incident  upon  the  breaking  of  a  long  com- 
panionship must  necessarily  be  great.  Pray  accept  my 
sympathy,  now  as  heretofore. 

For  some  time  his  more  intimate  friends  had  ceased 
arranging  beforehand  to  come  and  see  him,  as  the  mere 
anticipation  of  a  visit  perturbed  him,  and  he  was  sure 
to  wish  to  postpone  it.  Symptoms  similar  to  those  shown 
in  May  again  made  their  appearance.  By  November  he 
was  seldom  well  enough  to  answer  letters,  and  took  little 
interest  in  what  was  going  on.  In  replying  to  Mr. 
Shaw  Lefevre  (now  Lord  Eversley),  who  had  congratu- 
lated him  ' '  on  the  honour  conferred  on  you  by  the  Nobel 
Trustees,"  he  made  no  reference  to  the  Nobel  Prize. 
Nor  does  he  appear  to  have  taken  any  notice  of  the  para- 
graph in  Der  Tag,  of  Berlin  (November  12),  describing 
225 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

him  as  a  candidate  for  the  Nobel  Prize  for  Literature  for 
1903.  Der  Tag,  unfortunately,  instead  of  his  portrait 
gave  that  of  Earl  Spencer,  with  the  subscription — "  Ein 
Anwarter  fur  den  literarischen  Nobelpreis  vom  Jahre, 
1903 :  Lord  Herbert  Spencer. "  This  was  not  the  first  in- 
stance of  the  confusing  of  Spencer  with  Earl  Spencer 
by  continental  writers.  In  1885  Earl  Spencer  apologised 
for  having  opened  a  note  from  M.  Hoguet,  addressed 
"  Earl  Herbert  Spencer,  27  Saint  James'  Place."  "  I 
cannot  claim  to  have  any  works  worthy  of  the  attention 
of  M.  Hoguet,"  he  wrote,  "  though  I  am  proud  to  bear 
the  same  name  as  one  so  distinguished  in  letters  as  your- 
self." 

In  response  to  a  repeated  request  he  dictated  a  note 
on  November  20  to  M.  Coutant  of  Paris:  "  I  assent  to 
the  addition  of  my  name  to  the  list  of  those  who  approve 
of  the  aims  of  the  Bibliotheque  Pacificiste  Internatio- 
nale." After  this  only  one  more  letter  was  signed  by 
him,  namely,  one  on  the  26th  to  Mrs.  Courtney,  who 
had  forwarded  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  Mrs.  Steyn, 
giving  an  account  of  the  improvement  in  Mr.  Steyn 's 
health  and  their  hope  of  being  able  to  return  to  South 
Africa.  "  Even  when  there,"  Mrs.  Steyn  wrote,  "  we 
will  not  forget  to  think  with  love  and  reverence  of  you 
as  the  great  Englishman  who,  in  the  hour  of  our  deepest 
suffering,  shed  so  bright  a  ray  on  our  path  and  made  us 
again  take  hope  for  the  future."  Surely  there  was  a 
singular  fitness  in  this  that  the  two  last  letters  he  signed 
should  have  been  connected  with  one  of  the  main  pur- 
poses of  his  life — the  promotion  of  peace  on  earth  and 
goodwill  among  men. 

During  the  last  week  of  November  he  took  a  decided 
226 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

turn  for  the  worse.  He  had  expressed  a  wish  that  Mrs. 
Sidney  Webb  should  be  present  when  he  passed  away. 
She  came  to  see  him  on  the  4th  December,  but  by  that 
time  he  seemed  to  have  ceased  to  care  to  see  anybody, 
only  desiring  to  be  left  alone.  Now  and  again  his  in- 
domitable will  asserted  itself,  as  when  a  day  or  two 
before  he  died,  after  several  ineffectual  attempts  to  con- 
vey a  pill  to  his  mouth,  he  declined  the  assistance  Miss 
Killick  offered,  saying,  "  I  hate  to  be  beaten."  On  an- 
other occasion,  when  signing  a  legal  document,  he  re- 
marked to  Mr.  Troughton,  who  had  moved  the  paper  so 
as  to  get  the  signature  at  the  proper  place :  ' '  What  are 
you  doing  ?  Do  you  think  I  am  a  dying  man  ? ' '  When 
bidding  him  good  night  on  the  Sunday  before  he  died, 
Mr.  Charles  Holme  said:  "  I  shall  see  you  to-morrow 
morning,"  and  was  rather  surprised  by  the  prompt 
question:  "  Why  not?" 

"  All  through  Monday,"  Mr.  Troughton  writes,  "  he 
was  either  unconscious  or  semi-conscious ;  and  it  WP,S  dur- 
ing a  semi-conscious  interval  that  he  motioned  me  to  his 
bedside,  and,  holding  out  his  almost  fleshless  hand,  ut- 
tered the  last  words  he  ever  spoke — characteristic  in  syn- 
tactical expression,  but  apparently  meaningless,  though 
it  is  possible  that  some  definite  purpose  prompted  them. 
The  words  were :  '  Now  I  take  this  step  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  are  to  be  my  executors ;  my  intention  being 
that  after  death  this  my  body  shall  be  conveyed  by 
sea  to  Portsmouth.'  "  In  the  evening  he  became  uncon- 
scious, remaining  so  till  4.40  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday, 
8th  December,  1903,  when  he  passed  peacefully  away. 
His  end  was  such  as  his  friends  desired  and  he  himself 
wished. 

227 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

His  executors,  Mr.  Charles  Holme  and  Mr.  Frank 
Lott,  found  the  instructions  for  the  disposal  of  his  body 
most  explicit  and  detailed.  He  had  forbidden  "  the 
now  usual  display  of  wreaths  and  the  use  of  a  hearse 
with  open  sides  for  the  purpose  of  display. ' '  It  was  also 
his  wish  that  those  present  should  not  wear  mourning. 
In  the  event  of  Mr.  Morley  not  being  able  to  be  present, 
he  had  left  directions  that  Mr.  Leonard  Courtney  should 
be  invited  to  take  his  place.  Being  at  sea  on  his  way  to 
Sicily,  Mr.  Morley  was  unable  to  fulfil  his  promise  to  say 
a  few  words  at  the  funeral  of  his  friend.  Mr.  Courtney, 
who  was  in  Edinburgh  engaged  in  a  political  campaign, 
promised  to  come,  if  no  one  else  could  be  found.  Lord 
Avebury  found  it  impossible  to  come,  and  Mr.  Balfour 
greatly  regretted  that  official  engagements  of  pressing 
importance  compelled  him  to  decline.  Putting  aside  his 
own  convenience,  therefore,  Mr.  Courtney  hastened 
south. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday,  December  14th,  the  re- 
mains were  removed  from  Percival  Terrace,  the  Mayor  of 
Brighton  in  his  official  capacity,  and  the  President  of  the 
Brighton  and  Hove  Natural  History  Society,  following 
the  hearse  to  the  railway  station.  At  Victoria  station  a 
few  friends  had  assembled.  A  plain  close  hearse  fol- 
lowed by  three  carriages  constituted  the  funeral  proces- 
sion through  London.  As  it  passed  along  the  streets,  few 
were  aware  that  this  was  the  last  journey  of  one  of  the 
greatest  thinkers  of  this  or  any  age.  The  assemblage  at 
the  crematorium  at  Golder's  Green  included,  in  addition 
to  relatives,  the  members  of  his  household,  the  executors 
and  two  of  the  trustees,  many  intimate  private  friends, 
distinguished  representatives  of  literature  and  science, 
228 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

with  most  of  whom  Spencer  had  long  been  associated  as 
a  fellow-worker,  and  several  foreign  friends  and  dis- 
ciples. A  few  of  his  dearest  friends  were,  to  their  deep 
regret,  unable,  owing  to  the  infirmities  of  age,  to  pay 
their  last  tribute  of  respect. 

The  following  impressive  address  was  delivered  to  the 
assembly  of  mourners  by  Mr.  Leonard  Courtney  (now 
Lord  Courtney  of  Penwith) : 

I  am  not  worthy  to  be  called  to  the  most  honourable 
duty  which  has  this  day  fallen  upon  me.  So  much  I  am 
bound  to  confess  in  all  simplicity  and  sincerity  at  the 
outset  of  the  few  words  I  may  utter.  I  cannot  claim 
to  have  been  in  any  fit  sense  a  student  of  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's works.  I  cannot  plead  for  recognition  as  one  of 
the  great  company  of  his  disciples.  You  know,  indeed, 
that  Herbert  Spencer 's  first  desire  was  that  another  man, 
known  and  honoured  of  us  all,  should  speak  on  this  oc- 
casion. His  consent  had  been  sought  and  obtained,  and 
his  words  would  have  been  fitting  memorial  of  the  work 
and  worth  of  the  dead.  But  four  years  of  unremitting 
and,  towards  the  end,  of  exhausting  toil,  have  induced 
John  Morley  to  seek  recovery  of  health  and  strength  by 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  the  news  of  Herbert  Spen- 
cer 's  death  overtook  him  as  he  reached  the  Sicilian  shores 
of  imperishable  memories  and  ever-renewed  beauties. 
His  weariness  has  passed  away,  his  normal  vigour  is  re- 
established, but  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  him 
to  return  here  to-day  had  it  been  right  to  make  the  at- 
tempt, and  it  was  represented  to  me  that  Herbert  Spen- 
cer had  expressed  the  wish  that  I  should  take  the  place 
of  John  Morley  if  he  could  not  be  present  himself. 

This  message  was  sent  to  me  four  days  since,  when  I 

was  in  the  Northern  capital.    I  was  immersed  in  another 

sphere  of  action  and  occupied  with  far  other  thoughts, 

but  to  such  a  call  I  could  not  be  disobedient,  and  I  am 

229 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

here  to-day,  craving  all  forbearance  if  I  fail  to  satisfy 
the  unspoken  desires  which  attend  this  office.  I  am  in- 
deed borne  down  when  I  think  how  vast  a  concourse 
of  learners  and  workers  in  all  lands  are,  in  spirit,  if  not 
in  body,  attending  here  to-day  to  testify  with  gladness 
and  gratitude  the  depth  of  their  debt  to  the  departed. 
Yet  I  must  not  shrink  from  adding  a  few  more  words 
of  a  personal  and  private  character. 

It  is  many  years  since  I  first  became  acquainted  with 
Herbert  Spencer,  and  more  than  a  score  since  our  ac- 
quaintance became  more  intimate  and  my  opportunities 
of  intercourse  more  frequent  and  more  fruitful  by  my 
entering  into  a  family  of  which  he  had  been  an  habitual 
guest  and  honoured  friend.  Women  of  that  family  are 
here  to-day  in  whose  earliest  recollection  Mr.  Spencer's 
personality  dwells,  who  passed  from  childhood  to  girl- 
hood, from  girlhood  to  womanhood,  under  his  eye,  and 
to  whom  his  death  is  the  passing  away  of  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  grown-up  people  into  whose  society  they 
were  born.  Their  memories  have  in  some  measure  be- 
come my  own,  and  upon  the  advantage  thus  secured 
friendship  grew  and  sympathy  increased,  a  sympathy 
in  respect  to  public  affairs  never  so  great,  so  animated, 
and  so  helpful  in  the  years  which  have  quite  recently 


The  first  thought  of  every  one  musing  over  the  life  of 
Spencer  must  be  that  of  admiration  for  the  vastness  of 
the  work  he  planned  for  himself  and  of  gratitude  and 
even  joy  that  he  lived  to  see  his  self-ordained  task  com- 
pleted. Rarely  or  never  in  the  history  of  thought  have 
we  seen  so  vast  a  conception  carried  forward  by  a  single 
man  into  execution.  The  syllabus  which  he  issued  in  the 
year  1860,  inviting  support  to  his  undertaking,  must 
have  appeared  to  many  readers  a  dream  that  could  never 
be  translated  into  reality.  A  thousand  chances,  apart 
from  a  failure  in  the  pertinacity  or  resolution  of  the 
planner,  might  be  counted  against  the  fulfilment  of  his 
plans.  We  know,  indeed,  that  such  evil  chances  soon  as- 
230 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

serted  themselves.  A  delicacy  of  constitution  of  which, 
having  regard  to  his  long  years,  Spencer  himself  was, 
perhaps,  too  sensible,  threatened  to  interfere  with,  if  not 
to  arrest  altogether,  the  progress  of  his  work. 

The  support  he  received  was  inadequate  to  meet  the 
charges  of  his  undertaking,  and  his  means  were  being 
consumed  at  a  rate  which  would  soon  exhaust  them. 
This  second  hindrance  was  more  easily  set  aside  than  the 
first.  A  circular,  intimating  that  the  work  must  be  sus- 
pended, quickly  brought  a  sufficiency  of  help.  Spencer 
had  already  obtained  more  readers  and  more  disciples 
than  he  knew,  and  friends  across  the  Atlantic  united 
in  offering  aid  substantial  enough  to  remove  anxieties. 
As  the  result  proved,  a  continually  growing  sale  of 
his  books  quickly  afforded  all  needful  support,  and 
the  special  response  to  his  appeal  was  scarcely  neces- 
sary. 

Indifferent  health  proved  a  more  lasting  difficulty. 
He  was  reduced  to  working  very  few  hours  a  day,  and 
sometimes  to  abstaining  altogether  from  work  for  con- 
siderable intervals.  The  wonder  is  that  with  the  moder- 
ate allotment  that  was  possible  so  much  work  was  done. 
Thirty-six  years  did  indeed  pass  from  the  first  announce- 
ment of  the  undertaking  before  the  final  volume  was  is- 
sued. But  what  a  range  of  inquiry,  what  an  accumula- 
tion of  illustrations,  what  a  width  of  generalisation  do 
the  volumes  of  'the  series  not  cover. 

All  history,  all  science,  all  the  varying  forms  of 
thought  and  belief,  all  the  institutions  of  all  the  stages 
of  man's  progress  were  brought  together,  and  out  of  this 
innumerable  multitude  of  data  emerged  one  coherent, 
luminous,  and  vitalising  conception  of  the  evolution  of 
the  world.  It  is  this  harmony  issuing  out  of  many  ap- 
parent discords,  this  oneness  of  movement  flowing 
through  and  absorbing  endless  eddies  and  counter- 
streams  and  back  currents,  that  constitutes  Spencer's 
greatest  glory  and  caused  the  multiplying  army  of  read- 
ers of  Spencer's  successive  volumes  to  feel  the  joy  of 
231 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

discovering  a  great  and  ennobling  vision  of  progress 
hitherto  unrealised. 

If,  in  later  years,  some  sense  of  the  limitation  of  the 
inquiry  has  supervened,  if  some  feeling  has  arisen  of  the 
insufficiency  of  the  explanations  offered,  of  some  steps 
in  the  proof,  some  apprehension  of  gaps  uncovered  in  the 
synthesis,  there  still  remains  throughout  all  the  varied 
populations  of  the  civilised  world  the  abiding,  undimin- 
ished  conviction  of  a  great  gain  realised,  of  a  new  plane 
of  thought  surmounted  and  mastered,  new  footholds 
of  speculation  secured  which  will  never  be  lost  in  the 
education  of  man  and  the  development  of  society. 

Admiration  of  the  range  of  his  inquiry,  of  the  vigour 
of  his  analysis,  of  the  scope  and  comprehension  of  his 
great  theory,  must  be  our  first  impression  in  reviewing 
Spencer's  work,  yet  must  it  never  be  forgotten  that  his 
one  overmastering  and  dominant  purpose  was  practical, 
social,  human.  Let  it.  be  noted  that  when  it  seemed 
too  probable  that  his  life  would  not  endure  to  complete 
his  design  in  all  its  parts,  he  broke  off  the  sociological 
analysis  to  reach  forward  to  the  right  determination  of 
the  bases  of  individual  and  political  ethics.  To  lay  the 
foundation  of  these  on  bed-rocks  of  truth  had  always 
been  his  ultimate  purpose.  It  was  indicated  in  the  first 
sketch  of  his  proposed  labours,  and  when  preparatory 
clearances  threatened  to  overwhelm  him,  he  left  these 
works  to  achieve  the  essential  purpose  of  his  plan.  The 
leading  principle  of  his  previous  inquiries  gave  him  the 
clue  to  the  solution  of  this  final  problem. 

The  self-adjustment  of  forces,  which  he  had  found 
explaining  all  cosmic  movements,  had  a  parallel  in  the 
self-adjustment  of  the  forces  through  the  working  of 
which  has  been  developed  the  society  of  man.  In  Spen- 
cer's vision  it  seemed  inevitable  that  this  should  lead 
him  to  the  highest  exaltation  of  the  worth  of  individual 
freedom,  and  to  contest  with  all  his  energy  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  rules  of  the  many  with  the  growth  of  the  one. 
"We  may  be  permitted  to  cling  to  the  faith  that  this 
232 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

conception  presents  a  true  aspect  of  ultimate  evolution; 
and  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  not  many  of  us  could 
accompany  Spencer  in  all  the  thoroughness  of  the  im- 
mediate application  of  his  principles  to  society  as  it  is. 
If  we  know  but  imperfectly  what  we  are,  and  know  not 
yet  what  we  shall  be,  we  may  still  believe  in  the  ultimate 
realisation  of  a  perfect  order  without  coercion,  and  of 
the  service  that  shall  be  perfect  freedom;  and  we  may 
be  bold  to  insist  that  meanwhile  the  presumption  is 
against  interference,  the  justification  of  which  is  a  bur- 
den to  be  discharged. 

Spencer,  indeed,  in  his  late  years  sadly  took  note  of 
movements  apparently  in  contradiction  to  the  leading 
principles  of  his  doctrines,  and  here  I  may  recall  a  con- 
versation within  a  week  of  his  death  between  him  and  a 
friend  who  had  once  been  wholly  with  him,  but  had 
latterly  leant  to  Collectivist  action.  "  We  have  been 
separated, ' '  said  Spencer,  ' '  but  if  we  have  been  moving 
along  different  lines,  I  know  we  have  both  been  moving 
to  the  same  end. "  "  Yes, ' '  she  replied — it  was  a  woman 
who  showed  that  divergence  of  opinion  could  not  detach 
her  from  offices  of  tenderness  and  of  love — ' '  and  it  may 
be  that  in  time  some  other  method  of  attacking  the  great 
problem  will  be  adopted,  which  will  be  neither  wholly 
yours  nor  wholly  ours."  "  Yes,  it  may  be,"  said  Spen- 
cer, thus  revealing  in  the  last  week  of  his  life  a  mind 
open  to  receive  new  suggestions  and  to  accept  new  pro- 
posals of  change. 

Standing  here  by  these  poor  remains  so  soon  to  be  re- 
duced to  ' '  two  handf uls  of  white  dust, ' '  we  are  irresist- 
ibly drawn  on  to  accompanying  Spencer  in  his  last  brave 
effort  to  scrutinise  the  implacable  facts  of  life.  The  last 
chapter  of  his  last  book  grapples  with  ultimate  questions 
and  propounds  his  final  judgment  on  the  ' '  Riddle  of  the 
Universe."  No  record  can  be  more  candid,  no  confession 
more  striking  than  that  in  which  he  is  even  appalled 
by  the  thought  of  space  with  its  infinite  extension  and 
everlasting  laws  enduring  before  evolution  and  creation, 
233 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

declared  things  as  they  are.  What  is  the  place  of  man 
in  this  great  vision?  The  brain  so  full  and  so  powerful 
has  ceased  to  act.  There  is  no  longer  any  manifestation 
of  consciousness.  Can  consciousness  survive  after  the  or- 
gan on  which  it  depended  has  ceased  to  be?  Is  the  per- 
sonality that  dwelt  in  this  poor  frame  to  be  admitted  as 
in  itself  indestructible?  Or  must  we  acquiesce  in  its  re- 
absorption  in  the  infinite,  the  ever-abiding,  the  ineffable 
energy  of  which  it  was  a  passing  spark?  If  indestruc- 
tible in  the  future,  must  it  not  have  been  as  incapable 
of  coming  into  existence  as  it  is  incapable  of  ceasing  to 
be  ?  Our  master  knew  not.  He  could  not  tell. 

The  last  enigma  defies  our  question.  The  dimensions 
of  the  unknown  may  be  reduced  through  successive  ages, 
but  compared  with  our  slender  discoveries,  estimated  at 
the  best,  a  vastness  that  remains  must  ever  overawe  us. 
Some  fringes  of  the  unknowable  may  yet  prove  to  be 
capable  of  being  known,  but  the  great  central  secret  lies 
beyond  our  apprehension.  Yet  two  thoughts  remain.  If 
the  night  cometh  in  which  no  man  can  work,  we  may 
work  while  it  is  day.  If  we  can  work,  it  is  somehow 
within  our  power  to  work  for  what  is  noble,  for  what  is 
inspiring,  for  what  is  broadening,  deepening,  and 
strengthening  the  life  of  man.  We  may  devote  our  lives 
to  the  service  of  supreme  goodness.  Looking  back  on  the 
years  of  Spencer  we  may  say  that  he  thus  worked,  he 
thus  dedicated  himself  as  truly  and  as  bravely  as  any 
man  enjoying  the  solace  of  a  more  definite  creed.  To 
this  spirit,  then,  whose  work  survives,  whose  words  yet 
speak,  the  wave  of  whose  influence  can  yet  pass  from 
generation  to  generation,  we  may  say  in  all  the  fulness 
of  interpretation  which  the  phrase  can  bear — "  Fare- 
well." 


In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  the  ashes  were  con- 
veyed to  Highgate  Cemetery  and  deposited  in  the  sar- 
cophagus which  he  had  kept  in  readiness  for  some  years. 
234 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

The  stone,  in  accordance  with  his  directions,  bears  only 
his  name,  the  dates  of  his  birth  and  death,  and  his  age. 

The  sense  of  loss  was  widespread  and  profound,  as  was 
evident  from  the  letters  that  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Societies  at  home  and  abroad  vied  with  one 
another  in  their  eagerness  to  pay  a  tribute  to  his  memory. 
From  Italy  condolences  were  sent  by  both  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  Italian  Am- 
bassador telegraphed: — 

I  have  been  instructed  by  the  Minister  of  Public  In- 
struction to  express  the  profound  regret  of  the  Italian 
nation  for  the  death  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  whose  noble 
life,  entirely  devoted  to  the  highest  aims  of  philosophy 
and  science,  has  been  an  object  of  deep  admiration  for 
all  Italian  students. 

The  resolution  of  the  Italian  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
which  was  communicated  to  the  Marquess  of  Lansdowne, 
Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  by  His  Majesty's 
Ambassador  at  Rome,  and  by  the  Italian  Ambassador 
in  London,  expressed  the  condolence  of  the  Chamber  with 
the  British  Government  and  the  great  and  friendly  na- 
tion on  the  death  of  Herbert  Spencer. 

In  accordance  with  an  announcement  made  at  the 
cremation  a  sum  of  £1,000  was  presented  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  by  Mr.  Shyamaji  Krishnavarma  to 
found  a  Herbert  Spencer  Lectureship.  Three  annual 
lectures  have  already  been  delivered — by  Mr.  Frederic 
Harrison  in  1905,  by  the  late  Hon.  Auberon  Herbert  in 
1906,  and  by  Mr.  Francis  Galton  in  1907.  A  movement 
was  also  made  for  the  purpose  of  raising  some  fitting 
memorial,  national  or  international,  to  be  placed,  if  per- 
mission were  granted,  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  fol- 
237 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

lowing  is  the  correspondence  that  took  place  on  the  pro- 
posal. 

I. 

To  THE  VERY  REV.  THE  DEAN  OP  WESTMINSTER. 

30  May,  1904. 
DEAR  SIR, 

We  beg  to  place  in  your  hands  herewith  a  memorial 
letter  addressed  to  yourself  and  bearing  the  signature  of 
those  whose  names  are  given  in  the  accompanying  list. 
The  original  signatures  to  the  form  of  memorial  circu- 
lated for  this  purpose  are  also  enclosed. 

In  asking  you  to  give  consideration  to  the  matter  re- 
ferred to  in  the  memorial,  we  desire  to  point  out  that 
those  who  have  attached  their  names  have  done  so  in 
their  individual  capacities,  and  not  as  representatives  of 
any  public  body  or  office. 

We  are,  dear  Sir, 

Yours  obediently, 
(Signed)  R.  MELDOLA, 

GEOFFREY  S.  WILLIAMS. 

II. 

To  THE  VERY  REV.  THE  DEAN  OF  WESTMINSTER. 

DEAR  SIR, 

A  number  of  the  friends,  admirers  and  disciples  of 
the  late  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  being  of  opinion  that  some 
fitting  memorial  should  be  raised  in  this  country  in 
recognition  of  his  lifelong  devotion  to  philosophical 
studies  and  of  his  influence  upon  contemporary  thought 
throughout  the  world,  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
Westminster  Abbey  would  be  an  appropriate  place  for 
the  reception  of  such  a  memorial. 

In  view  of  the  important  and  stimulating  effect  of 
Mr.  Spencer's  writings  in  the  domains  of  Philosophy, 
Science,  and  Education,  we  whose  signatures  are  ap- 
238 


THE  CLOSE  OP  LIFE 

ponded  feel  justified  in  approaching  you  with  the  request 
that,  in  the  event  of  an  international  fund  being  raised 
for  this  purpose,  you  would  grant  the  necessary  space  in 
the  Abbey. 

We  are,  Sir, 

Yours  obediently, 

List  of  Signatures  to  the  Letter  to  the  Dean  of 
Westminster. 

His  Grace  the  Duke  of  DEVONSHIRE,  E.G.,  Chancellor 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  AVEBUEY,  P.C.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  HOBHOUSE,  P.C.,  K.C.S.I.,  C.I.E. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  REAY,  G.C.S.I.,  G.C.I.E.,  LL.D.,  etc., 
President  of  the  British  Academy;  President  Uni- 
versity College,  London. 

S.  ALEXANDER,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Philosophy,  Victoria 
University,  Manchester. 

T.  CLIFFORD  ALLBUTT,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Regius  Professor  of 
Physic,  University  of  Cambridge. 

The  Rev.  T.  G.  BONNEY,  D.Sc.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Honorary 
Canon  of  Manchester,  Emeritus  Professor  of  Geol- 
ogy, University  College,  London. 

THOMAS  BOWMAN,  M.A.,  Warden  of  Merton  College, 
Oxford. 

E.  CAIRO,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  etc.,  Master  of  BaUiol  College, 

Oxford. 
EDWARD  CLODD,  Esq. 

F.  HOWARD  COLLINS,  Esq. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  LEONARD  H.  COURTNEY,  P.C. 

A.  W.  W.  DALE,  M.A.,  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University 

of  Liverpool. 
The  Rev.  C.  H.  O.  DANIEL,  M.A.,  Provost  of  Worcester 

College,  Oxford. 
FRANCIS  DARWIN,  Esq.,  M.A.,  M.B.,  Foreign  Secretary  of 

the  Royal  Society. 

G.  H.  DARWIN,  LL.D.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Plumian  Professor 

of  Astronomy,  University  of  Cambridge. 
239 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Sir  MOUNTSTUART  E.  GRANT  DUFF, 
G.C.S.I.,  P.O.,  F.R.S. 

The  Rev.  A.  M.  FAIRBAIRN,  M.A.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Litt.D., 
etc.,  Principal  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 

Sir  MICHAEL  FOSTER,  K.C.B.,  M.P.,  V.P.R.S.,  late 
Professor  of  Physiology,  University  of  Cam- 
bridge. 

The  Rev.  THOMAS  FOWLER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President 
Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford;  formerly  Professor 
of  Logic  in  the  University. 

The  Rev.  J.  FRANCK  BRIGHT,  D.D.,  Master  of  University 
College,  Oxford. 

FRANCIS  GALTON,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  etc. 

The  Rev.  T.  H.  GROSE,  M.A.,  Registrar,  University  of 
Oxford. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  R.  B.  HALDANE,  K.C.,  M.P.,  LL.D. 

The  Rev.  D.  HAMILTON,  D.D.,  President  of  Queen's  Col- 
lege, Belfast. 

C.  B.  HEBERDEN,  M.A.,  Principal  of  Brasenose  College, 
Oxford. 

ALEX  HILL,  M.A.,  M.D.,  J.P.,  Master  of  Downing  College, 
Cambridge. 

Sir  JOSEPH  DALTON  HOOKER,  G.C.S.I.,  C.B.,  D.C.L., 
LL.D.,  etc.,  Past  President  of  the  Royal  Society. 

A.  HOPKINSON,  K.C.,  LL.D.,  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Vic- 
toria University,  Manchester. 

Sir  WILLIAM  HUGGINS,  K.C.B.,  O.M.,  F.R.S.,  etc.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Society. 

H.  JACKSON,  Litt.D.,  LL.D.,  Fellow  and  Prselector  in 
Ancient  Philosophy,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

The  Rev.  B.  W.  JACKSON,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford. 

The  Very  Rev.  J.  H.  LANG,  D.D.,  Vice-Chancellor  and 
Principal  of  the  University,  Aberdeen. 

G.  D.  LIVEING,  M.A.,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry, University  of  Cambridge. 

Sir  J.  NORMAN  LOCKYER,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.,  etc.,  President 
of  the  British  Association. 
240 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

The  Rev.  J.  R.  MAGRATH,  D.D.,  Provost  of  Queen's  Col- 
lege, Oxford. 

A.  MARSHALL,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, University  of  Cambridge. 

The  Rev.  W.  W.  MERRY,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Lincoln  College, 
Oxford. 

HENRY  A.  MIERS,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Waynflete  Professor  of 
Mineralogy,  University  of  Oxford. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  J.  MITCHINSON,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Master  of 
Pembroke  College,  Oxford;  Canon  of  Gloucester, 
formerly  Bishop  of  Barbadoes. 

D.  B.  MONRO,  LL.D.,  etc.,  Vice-Chancellor,  University  of 
Oxford;  Provost  of  Oriel  College. 

C.  LLOYD  MORGAN,  L.L.D.,  F.R.S.,  Principal  of  Uni- 
versity College,  Bristol. 

JOHN  H.  MUIRHEAD,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Philoso- 
phy, the  University,  Birmingham. 

J.  PEILE,  Litt.D.,  Master  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge. 

HENRY  F.  PELHAM,  M.A.,  F.S.A.,  LL.D.,  Camden  Pro- 
•fessor  of  Ancient  History  and  President  of  Trinity 
College,  Oxford. 

EDWARD  B.  POULTON,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S.,  Hope  Professor  of 
Zoology,  Oxford;  President  of  the  Entomological 
Society,  London. 

H.  R.  REICHEL,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Principal  of  University 
College,  Bangor. 

J.  S.  REID,  M.A.,  LL.M.,  Litt.D.,  Professor  of  Ancient 
History,  University  of  Cambridge. 

JOHN  RHYS,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  Principal  of  Jesus  College, 
Oxford. 

F.  F.  ROBERTS,  M.A.,  Principal  of  University  College, 
Aberystwith. 

W.  R.  SORLEY,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Knightsbridge,  Professor  of 
Moral  Philosophy,  University  of  Cambridge. 

The  Rev.  W.  A.  SPOONER,  M.A.,  Warden  of  New  College, 
Oxford. 

The  Rev.  J.  E.  STMES,  M.A.,  Principal  of  University 
College,  Nottingham. 

241 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Sir  WILLIAM  TURNER,  K.C.B.,  D.C.L.,  Vice-Chancellor 

and  Principal  of  the  University,  Edinburgh. 
JAMES  WARD,  M.A.,  D.Sc.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Mental 

Philosophy,  University  of  Cambridge. 
W.  ALDIS  WRIGHT,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  Vice-Master, 

Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
The  Rev.  P.  A.  WRIGHT-HENDERSON,  M.A.,  Warden  of 

Wadham  College,  Oxford. 

III. 

To  PROFESSOR  MELDOLA. 

DEANERY,  WESTMINSTER. 

17  June,  1904. 
DEAR  SIR, 

When  you  first  approached  me  privately  with  ref- 
erence to  a  proposal  to  commemorate  the  late  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer  in  Westminster  Abbey,  I  replied  in  ac- 
cordance with  precedent  that,  if  a  formal  request  reached 
me  stating  the  grounds  on  which  the  application  rested 
and  signed  by  a  few  weighty  names,  it  would  be  my  duty 
to  give  it  grave  consideration.  I  added  for  your  guid- 
ance that  it  would  be  necessary  that  I  should  satisfy  my- 
self upon  the  two  following  questions: — 

(1)  Whether  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  contribution  to 
English  thought  is  of  such  importance  as  to  merit  the 
assignment  to  him  of  one  of  the  very  few  vacant  spaces 
which  are  now  available  in  the  Abbey  for  the  commemo- 
ration of  the  most  distinguished  of  our  countrymen ;  and 

(2)  Whether  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  attitude  towards 
Christianity,  as  expressed  in  his  writings,  may  be  rightly 
described  as  one  of  suspense  rather  than  hostility,  and 
one  which  does  not  make  it  inappropriate  that  his  me- 
morial should  be  placed  in  a  Christian  church.     I  said 
further,  that  on  coming  to  a  decision  on  these  two  points 
I  should  not  be  guided  entirely  by  my  own  judgment, 
but  should  seek  the  aid  of  persons  who  would  be  recog- 
nised as  experts. 

242 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

The  letter  which  has  now  reached  me  refers  to  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer's  "  lifelong  devotion  to  philosophical 
studies  and  his  influence  upon  contemporary  thought 
throughout  the  whole  world,"  and  proceeds  to  base  the 
request  upon  the  stimulating  effect  of  Mr.  Spencer's 
writings  in  the  domains  of  Philosophy,  Science  and 
Education.  With  these  expressions  of  appreciation  of 
Mr.  Spencer's  work  I  think  that  there  would  be  a  very 
general  agreement,  especially  in  view  of  the  service 
which  he  rendered  in  familiarising  the  public  mind  with 
the  general  conception  of  Evolution,  and  in  applying 
that  conception  with  great  courage  to  various  depart- 
ments of  human  thought  and  activity.  But  I  observe 
that  the  memorialists  do  not  claim  that  Mr.  Spencer  has 
or  will  have  a  high  place  as  a  philosophical  thinker. 
When  I  ask  with  what  important  achievement  in  philos- 
ophy or  in  natural  science,  or  with  what  permanent 
contribution  to  thought  his  name  is  destined  to  be  con- 
nected, I  meet  with  no  satisfactory  reply.  His  philo- 
sophical system  has  called  forth  the  severest  criticism, 
and  his  views  in  various  branches  of  knowledge,  physical 
as  well  as  metaphysical,  are  severely  challenged  by  ex- 
perts. Eminent  he  was  in  his  own  generation,  and 
stimulating  in  a  high  degree.  But  these  characteristics, 
apart  from  the  enduring  quality  of  work,  do  not  con- 
stitute the  highest  claim  to  a  national  homage  which  is 
now  necessarily  restricted  to  a  very  few;  and  I  have 
failed  to  find  evidence  that  the  results  which  Mr.  Spen- 
cer has  achieved  are  such  as  are  certain  to  command 
recognition  in  the  future. 

After  what  has  been  said  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter 
into  the  question  whether  Westminster  Abbey  as  a  place 
of  Christian  worship  could  appropriately  receive  the 
monument  of  a  thinker  who  expressly  excluded  Chris- 
tianity from  his  system  of  thought.  It  may  be  right 
that  I  should  say  that  this  question  is  answered  in  the 
negative  by  some  thoughtful  men  who  differ  very  widely 
in  religious  opinion.  At  the  same  time  I  should  wish  to 
243 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

recognise  the  notable  softening  of  his  earlier  asperity 
towards  religious  systems  which  marks  the  closing  pages 
of  Mr.  Spencer's  Autobiography. 

For  the  reason  which  I  have  given  above  I  am  com- 
pelled to  decline  the  proposal,  notwithstanding  the  dis- 
tinguished signatures  by  which  it  is  commended.  In 
doing  this  I  would  plead  for  forbearance  on  the  part  of 
those  who  will  think  my  decision  to  be  wrong,  on  the 
ground  that  if  I  have  erred  it  is  on  the  side  of  caution 
in  the  discharge  of  a  great  responsibility,  and  that  a  mis- 
take of  refusal  in  matters  of  this  kind  can  be  honourably 
repaired  by  a  future  generation. 

I  beg  that  you  will  be  good  enough  to  convey  this  reply 
to  the  signatories  of  the  letter. 

I  remain,  your  obedient  servant, 
(Signed)      J.  ARMITAGE  ROBINSON, 
Dean  of  Westminster. 

Bearing  in  mind  Spencer's  sensitive  and  high-minded 
nature  and  his  well-known  views  on  the  subject  of  hon- 
ours, the  present  writer  would  have  preferred  to  pass 
over  in  silence  the  refusal  of  Dean  Robinson  to  admit 
any  memorial  of  Spencer  into  Westminster  Abbey — a 
refusal,  be  it  said,  couched  in  perfectly  courteous  and 
dignified  terms.  But  silence  might  be  interpreted  as 
acquiescence  in  the  Dean's  judgment  upon  Spencer's 
position  in  the  world  of  thought.  On  the  question 
whether  Spencer  had  "  a  high  place  as  a  philosophical 
thinker,"  it  seems  enough  to  say  that  it  may  reasonably 
be  assumed  that  the  many  very  distinguished  men  of 
science,  philosophy,  and  letters  mentioned  above  were 
fully  aware  of  the  exceptional  nature  of  their  request,  and 
that  they  deliberately,  honestly,  and  without  any  mental 
reservation,  subscribed  their  names  to  the  opinion  ' '  that 
Westminster  Abbey  would  be  an  appropriate  place  for 
244 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

the  reception  "  of  the  memorial.  If  it  was  difficult'  to 
understand  the  Dean's  decision  at  the  time,  it  has  been 
rendered  much  more  difficult  since.  In  May,  1904,  the 
Dean  refused  to  a  philosopher  recognition  of  "  the  high- 
est claim  to  a  national  homage  which  is  now  necessarily 
restricted  to  a  very  few  " ;  in  October,  1905,  he  conceded 
that  recognition  to  an  actor.  This  incident  alone  would 
justify  Hegel's  famous  taunt  about  the  value  set  upon 
philosophy  in  England. 

Whether  memorials  in  Westminster  Abbey  should  be 
confined  to  "  those  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  "  is  a  question  which  it  would  be  out  of  place 
to  discuss  here ;  but  the  readers  of  this  volume  will  recall 
some  of  the  many  occasions  on  which  Spencer  felt  called 
upon  to  suspend  his  work  in  order  to  try  to  convert 
Christians  to  Christianity. 


245 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

CHARACTERISTICS  AND  PERSONAL 
REMINISCENCES 

ONE  of  the  most  striking  features  of  Spencer's  char- 
acter was  the  small  weight  he  attached  to  authority  or, 
to  be  more  exact,  his  utter  disregard  of  it.  The  same 
trait  was  possessed  by  his  father,  but  in  a  less  marked 
degree;  and  though  his  mother  displayed  the  opposite 
temperament,  he  himself  was  inclined  to  think  that  a 
strain  of  nonconformity  had  been  inherited  by  him  from 
her  recusant  ancestry.  As  he  grew  up  to  manhood,  the 
constitutional  proneness  to  set  authority  at  defiance  be- 
came less  an  instinctive  impulse  and  more  a  matter  of 
principle.  The  tendency  for  those  in  power  to  abuse 
their  position  became  a  settled  conviction.  Authority 
had  therefore  to  be  jealously  watched.  When  it  at- 
tempted to  restrict  his  individual  liberty,  it  was  firmly 
resisted,  and  when  it  encroached  on  the  liberty  of  others, 

NOTE  1. — This  chapter  is  largely  based  upon  contributions  from 
many  of  Spencer's  personal  friends — not  always  distinguishable  in 
typographical  arrangement  from  the  biographer's  own  narrative. 
This  will  explain  a  certain  amount  of  unavoidable  repetition. 

NOTE  2. — For  published  reminiscences  of  Spencer  written  by 
three  men  who  knew  him  intimately,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
following:  — 

"Personal  Reminiscences"  by  Grant  Allen,  written  in  1894  and 
published  in  the  Forum  for  April — June,  1904. 

"A  Character  Study"  by  William  Henry  Hudson,  Fortnightly 
Review  for  January,  1904. 

"Reminiscences"  by  James  Collier,  forming  a  chapter  in  Josiah 
Royce's  Herbert  Spencer.  Fox,  Duffield  and  Co.,  New  York,  1904. 

246 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

their  efforts  to  withstand  it  claimed  his  sympathy. 
Without  waiting  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  a  dispute  between  those  in  authority  and  those 
subject  to  it,  his  first  impulse  was  to  take  the  part  of 
the  latter. 

In  his  thinking  as  well  as  in  his  acting,  he  set  authority 
at  naught.  Unlike  Mr.  Gladstone,  of  whom  Mr.  Morley 
says  (i.,  202)  that  "  in  every  field  of  thought  and  life  he 
started  from  the  principle  of  authority,"  Spencer  never 
began  by  attempting  to  learn  what  had  already  been 
said.  His  aversion  from  reading,  which  he  himself  at- 
tributed to  constitutional  idleness,  was  probably  due 
largely  to  indifference  to  other  men's  opinions.  "  All 
my  life  long  I  have  been  a  thinker,  and  not  a  reader, 
being  able  to  say  with  Hobbes  that  '  if  I  had  read  as 
much  as  other  men  I  should  have  known  as  little. '  ' 

His  disregard  of  authority,  human  or  divine,  was  dis- 
regard of  personal  authority  only,  and  was  accom- 
panied by  whole-hearted  fealty  to  principles.  His  pro- 
found respect  for  the  impersonal  authority  of  principles 
in  human  affairs  had  its  complement  in  a  reverence  for 
Divine  impersonal  authority.  State  ceremonial  and 
ecclestiastieal  ceremonial  were  alike  distasteful.  To  pay 
homage  to  royal  persons  while  showing  little  respect  for 
the  principles  that  underlie  human  society,  drew  from 
him  the  reproof:  "It  is  so  disloyal."  To  bend  the 
knee  and  utter  praise  to  a  Divine  person,  while  ignoring 
the  principles  of  religion  and  morality,  met  with  a  sim- 
ilar condemnation:  "It  is  so  irreligious."  One  of  his 
most  cherished  sentiments  found  expression  in  what  he 
wrote  for  the  album  of  autographs  and  sentiments  to  be 
published  in  Italy  at  the  fourth  centenary  of  the  dis- 
247 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

covery  of  America:  "  Be  their  rank  or  position  what  it 
may,  from  Emperors  and  Kings  downwards,  those  who 
have  done  nothing  for  their  fellow-men  I  decline  to  hon- 
our. I  honour  those  only  who  have  benefited  mankind, 
and  as  one  of  them  I  honour  Columbus. ' ' 

Though  the  moral  imperative  had  not  to  array  itself 
with  the  adventitious  insignia  of  personal  authority,  be- 
fore it  was  obeyed,  he  recognised  that  personal  authority 
was  necessary  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  development  of 
the  individual  and  the  race.  He  himself  outgrew  this 
stage  between  his  eighteenth  and  twenty-first  year.  Re- 
ferring to  the  change  that  took  place  in  his  own  char- 
acter during  these  three  years,  he  says  in  a  memo- 
randum: 

This  transformation  was,  I  doubt  not,  due  to  the  fall- 
ing into  conditions  more  appropriate  to  my  nature. 
There  are  those  to  whom  life  under  authority,  with  more 
or  less  of  coercion,  is  both  needful  and  wholesome,  and 
in  whom  there  is  produced  by  it  no  distortion  of  moral 
attitude.  There  are  others  better  fitted  for  self -regula- 
tion, less  needing  control,  and  to  whom  control  is  pro- 
portionately repugnant,  and  in  whom  by  consequence, 
control  is  the  cause  of  perpetual  chafing  and  restiveness 
and  a  more  or  less  abnormal  state.  All  through  my  boy- 
hood and  up  to  the  time  I  left  home  this  was  the  case 
with  me;  and  as  soon  as  the  restraints  and  the  irrita- 
tion consequent  upon  them  were  removed,  a  more  health- 
ful tone  of  feeling  arose,  and  a  beneficial  change  began, 
which  had,  it  seems,  at  the  date  I  name,  become  very 
marked.  This  trait  of  nature  is  evidently  the  same  trait 
which  I  have  just  indicated  in  the  description  of  my  re- 
ligious, or  rather  irreligious,  condition  of  mind,  as  also 
in  the  tendencies  above  described  to  criticise  the  doings 
of  those  in  authority,  and  to  originate  new  plans  or  in- 
vent new  appliances.  Emotional  nature  is  an  all-impor- 
248 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

tant  factor  in  the  direction  taken  by  intellectual  activity, 
To  discover,  or  to  invent,  implies  a  relatively  large 
amount  of  self-confidence,  and  therefore  a  relatively 
smaller  respect  for  authority;  and  this  relatively  small 
amount  of  reverence,  which  runs  throughout  the  conduct 
towards  human  beings,  is  shown  also  in  aversion  to  that 
current  theory  of  the  universe  which  makes  it  the  prod- 
uct of  a  being  who  demands  incessant  homage. 


The  habit  of  seeking  for  a  cause  for  every  phenomenon 
was  being  formed  by  the  time  he  was  thirteen.  And  as 
the  idea  of  the  universality  of  natural  causation  became 
confirmed,  the  idea  of  the  supernatural,  as  ordinarily 
conceived,  became  impossible  to  be  entertained.  The 
current  theological  creed  insensibly  grew  to  be  alien  to 
his  convictions.  As  his  father  wrote  in  1860:  "  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  to  him  what 
revealed  religion  is  to  us,  and  that  any  wilful  infraction 
of  those  laws  is  to  him  as  much  a  sin,  as  to  us  is  disbelief 
in  what  is  revealed."  At  what  time  the  change  took 
place  Spencer  could  not  say,  as  it  had  no  marked  stages. 
It  was  unobtrusively  going  on  during  the  Worcester  life. 
Though  in  Facts  and  Comments  there  are  indications  of 
a  fuller  recognition  of  the  reasonableness  of  religion  as 
a  factor  in  human  life,  there  are  no  indications  of  any 
return  to  his  boyhood's  acceptance  of  a  personal  Provi- 
dence intervening  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  His  posi- 
tion was  frankly  agnostic,  negation  being  as  unwar- 
ranted as  affirmation.  The  mysteries  of  existence  re- 
mained mysteries  to  the  last.  Though  he  did  not  accept 
the  dogmas  of  any  creed,  he  was,  in  the  truest  sense, 
religious.  "  In  private  life,"  says  Mr.  Troughton,  "  he 
refrained  from  obtruding  his  heterodox  views  upon 
249 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

others,  nor  have  I  ever  known  him  give  utterance  to  any 
language  which  could  possibly  be  construed  as  '  scoffing. ' 
.  .  .  The  name  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  always 
elicited  his  profound  respect."  Mr.  Troughton  recalls 
more  than  one  occasion  on  which  Spencer  strongly  con- 
demned language  which  appeared  irreverent. 

He  had  an  abundant  share  of  self-confidence.  The 
possible  failure  of  any  of  his  many  inventions  was  seldom 
taken  into  account.  His  doctrines  were  from  the  outset 
deemed  secure  against  attack,  notwithstanding  repeated 
experiences  of  having  to  modify,  or  enlarge,  or  restrict, 
his  previous  expositions.  More  reading  and  less  think- 
ing— more  observation  and  experiment,  and  less  specula- 
tion— would  have  shaken  his  confidence  in  some  of  his 
conclusions;  but  would  also  have  caused  him  to  tread 
with  a  less  firm  step  the  long  road  he -marked  out  for 
himself.  Self-confidence,  however,  is  natural  to  all,  dif- 
fidence comes  only  with  experience  of  obstacles.  Most 
of  us  are  so  familiarised  with  objections,  prohibitions, 
and  troublesome  facts,  that  the  idea  of  another  side  to 
what  we  think,  no  less  than  to  what  we  do,  is  never  alto- 
gether absent.  On  Spencer,  accustomed  to  think  and 
act  for  himself,  "  the  other  side  "  did  not  obtrude. 
Hence  occasional  dogmatism;  hence  also  proneness  to 
treat  critics  and  criticisms  in  a  somewhat  cavalier 
fashion. 

He  was  slow  to  form  a  friendship ;  but,  once  formed, 
it  was  not  likely  to  be  broken  through  disregard  on  his 
part  of  even  the  least  of  its  claims.  Several  of  his  closest 
friendships  were  with  those  who  had  little  or  no  sym- 
pathy with  his  doctrines:  as  for  example,  with  Mr. 
Richard  Potter,  on  whose  constant  affection  he  had  entire 
250 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

dependence.     With  reference  to  this  Lady  Courtney  of 
Pen  with  writes: — 

My  mother  argued  with  him  a  good  deal,  my  father 
never.  It  is  rather  curious  that,  considering  the  affec- 
tion between  the  two  men,  and  Mr.  Spencer's  generous 
appreciation  of  my  father's  practical  sense  and  genial 
and  expansive  nature,  the  latter  never  read  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's books.  My  father  loved  an  emotion  or  a  sentiment, 
and  understood  the  concrete;  but  he  had  a  rooted  dis- 
trust of  abstract  ideas,  and  not  much  confidence  in  de- 
ductions which  depended  upon  sustained  argument;  and 
I  can  still  hear  him  cheerily  ending  one  of  these  argu- 
ments with:  "  Won't  work,  Spencer;  won't  work,  my 
dear  fellow."  After  I  was  grown  up,  I  remember  vividly 
an  incident  illustrating  Mr.  Spencer's  good-humoured 
acceptance  of  this  attitude  of  his  friend.  My  mother 
and  I  were  sitting  in  the  garden  at  Standish,  when  Mr. 
Spencer  came  up  to  us  with  an  expression  half-annoyed, 
half-amused,  on  his  face,  and  said  to  my  mother:  "  I 
could  almost  be  angry  with  your  husband,  Mrs.  Potter, 
did  I  not  know  him  so  well."  "  What  has  he  done?" 
said  my  mother.  Then  Mr.  Spencer  told  us  how  they 
had  been  standing  together  near  a  large  pond  we  had,  of 
which  my  father  was  rather  proud,  when  the  latter  said : 
' '  I  wish,  Spencer,  you  would  explain  the  main  points  of 
your  philosophy  to  me,  just  shortly."  To  which  Mr. 
Spencer  replied:  "  I  have  been  sending  you  my  books 
these  twenty  years  back ;  I  know  you  have  not  read  them, 
and  it  is  a  little  hard  to  put  them  all  into  ten  minutes ; 
however,  I  will  try,"  and  so  he  began  to  expound. 
"  Your  husband,"  continued  Mr.  Spencer,  "  seemed  to 
be  listening  intently,  as  he  gazed  into  the  water,  and  I 
thought  I  had  at  least  got  my  friend  to  give  his  mind  to 
my  ideas.  Suddenly  he  exclaimed,  '  I  say,  Spencer,  are 
those  gudgeon,  and  rushed  round  the  pond.'  " 

To  go  back  to  my  childish  memory  of  Mr.  Spencer. 
He  comes  back  to  me  as  a  tall  slight  man,  with  a  certain 
251 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

air  of  personal  distinction  which  made  even  an  old  coat 
look  well  on  him.  There  was  a  dignity — perhaps  also 
some  precision  in  his  manner — which  discouraged  famili- 
arity, and,  except  when  we  were  very  naughty  and  in 
open  revolt  against  our  elders,  we  treated  him  with  great 
respect.  Not  that  we  did  not  laugh  a  little  over  his  ways, 
and  even  argue  with  him  on  subjects  of  daily  life,  when 
we  thought  we  could  safely  meet  him ;  and  we  got  scolded 
for  it  too.  I  remember  when  quite  a  small  child,  Mr. 
Spencer  coming  down  to  breakfast  one  morning  with  his 
rather  long  upper  lip  longer  than  usual,  and  saying :  ' '  I 
slept  badly,  Katie  argued  with  me  last  night  ";  and  that 
my  remorse  was  not  unmixed  with  pride  that  I  should  so 
affect  a  grown  up  man. 

He  never  liked  to  feel  far  removed  from  opportunities 
of  meeting  his  friends,  though  when  he  knew  they  were 
near  he  could  do  with  little  of  their  company.  Few 
things  gave  him  more  satisfaction  than  to  know  that  the 
feelings  he  cherished  towards  his  friends  were  recipro- 
cated. Lady  Courtney  gives  an  instance  of  this  in  con- 
nection with  one  of  her  last  visits  to  him. 

I  had -come  armed  with  all  the  news  I  could  collect  of 
people  he  had  known,  whom  I  had  seen  at  all  recently, 
and,  among  others,  mentioned  the  friend  whose  parents 
he  had  so  frequently  visited  in  Scotland,  and  to  whose 
mother  he  had  been  much  attached.  After  giving  him 
a  greeting  from  this  lady,  I  said:  "  She  spoke  of  her 
mother's  affection  for  you."  He  started  up  in  bed,  col- 
oured up,  and  said  eagerly:  "  Did  she  really  say 
that?  ";  and  when  I  repeated  the  words  as  accurately 
as  I  could  remember  them,  he  lay  back  looking  very 
pleased  and  said:  "  I  am  very  glad  to  know  that.  I 
had  a  great  affection  for  Mrs.  —  -  [Mrs.  Smith],  but  I 
never  thought  she  liked  me.  I  fancied  she  only  asked  me 
because  her  husband  did,  and  because  she  thought  it 
252 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

was  a  duty  to  add  to  the  pleasures  and  health  of  a  man 
who  was  doing  good  work ;  but  I  am  glad,  very  glad,  she 
liked  me  for  myself."  In  spite  of  his  great  intellect  Mr. 
Spencer  always  seemed  to  me  to  have  a  strong  element 
of  the  feminine  in  his  character :  an  element  which  man- 
ifested itself  in  the  weaknesses,  as  well  as  in  the  attrac- 
tive qualities,  of  his  personality. 

The  Athenaeum  was  greatly  prized,  among  other  rea- 
sons, because  there  he  could  frequently — for  many  years 
almost  daily — see  his  friends.  The  present  writer  re- 
members Spencer's  unusual  elation  the  morning  he  re- 
ceived intimation  of  his  election.  Readers  of  the  Auto- 
biography might  be  inclined  to  doubt  whether  a  man  of 
his  habits  could  readily  adopt  himself  to  a  kind  of  life 
so  foreign  to  his  experience  as  that  of  a  London  Club, 
but  for  thirty-seven  years  he  was  an  acceptable  member 
of  one  of  those  institutions  in  which  absolutely  demo- 
cratic principles  have  to  be  reconciled  with  a  nice  regard 
for  the  feelings  and  comfort  of  others.  The  Club  became 
more  of  a  home  to  him  than  his  own  residence.  He  tells 
us  that  in  the  beginning  of  1868  there  occurred  "  an 
incident  of  moment  to  me,  affecting  greatly  my  daily  life 
throughout  the  future."  This  was  his  admission  as  a 
member  of  the  Athenaeum,  under  the  provisions  of  a  rule 
whereby  the  Committee  each  year  elect  not  more  than 
nine  persons  of  "  distinguished  eminence  in  science, 
literature  or  the  arts,  or  for  public  services,"  and  the 
election  must  be  unanimous.  The  names  of  the  other 
eight  members  elected  in  the  same  year  were :  Mr.  W.  R. 
Greg  and  Professor  David  Masson,  being  representative 
of  literature;  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Charles  Halle,  of 
music;  Mr.  W.  Holman  Hunt,  of  Art;  Mr.  (now  Sir) 
253 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

C.  R.  Markham,  Major  Sir  William  Palliser,  and  Colonel 
Sir  Arthur  Phayre,  for  public  services;  and  Colonel  W. 
J.  Smyth,  F.R.S.,  of  science.  Two  of  the  number,  Mr. 
W.  Holman  Hunt  and  Sir  C.  R.  Markham,  still  survive. 
Spencer  valued  the  distinction  of  election  to  the  Athe- 
naeum Club  by  the  Committee  very  highly,  and  it  was  the 
sole  recognition  of  merit  which  he  accepted. 

When  in  London  he  used  to  go  to  the  Athenaeum 
almost  daily,  and  occupied  himself  in  looking  at  the 
weekly  papers,  glancing  at  the  magazines,  and  skimming 
the  new  books,  to  see  what  was  going  on.  Occasionally 
he  read  novels,  but  only  by  instalments.  Biographies 
and  histories  he  passed  over,  but  travels  had  an  attrac- 
tion for  him  as  containing  materials  for  his  work.  Books 
dealing  with  sociology,  philosophy,  and  theology  were 
scanned,  both  for  observing  the  current  of  opinion,  and 
also  to  notice  adverse  criticism  of  his  views.  He  was 
sensitive  to  anything  in  the  way  of  misrepresentation 
and  always  took  action  at  once,  saying  he  kept  in  mind 
the  proverb:  "  Give  a  start  to  a  lie  and  you  can  never 
overtake  it."  He  used  the  library  for  purposes  of  ref- 
erence, and  never  spared  time  or  trouble  in  verifying 
facts  and  statements.  An  hour  or  two  every  afternoon 
was  passed  at  the  billiard  table,  for  which  he  offered  no 
excuse.  He  simply  liked  the  game.  He  was  not  dis- 
pleased to  have  his  own  dexterity  acknowledged,  and 
once  modestly  boasted  that  his  best  break  had  been  one 
of  47. 

In  May,  1874,  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee, "  and  for  a  long  subsequent  time  continued  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  administration  of  the  Club." 
He  scarcely  missed  a  meeting,  and  gave  much  thought 
254 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

and  attention  to  the  smallest  details  of  domestic  man- 
agement, as  well  as  to  the  more  dignified  elective  duties 
under  the  rule  above  mentioned.  He  had  an  extraor- 
dinary acquaintance  with  facts  of  practical  value,  and 
loved  to  discuss  the  art  of  tea-making  and  kitchen  ad- 
ministration on  philosophical  principles.  This  does  not 
suggest  a  very  pliable  committee-man,  but  Spencer  had 
more  good  sense  and  forbearance  in  social  intercourse 
than  he  gave  himself  credit  for.  With  his  usual  habit  of 
severe  self-judgment  he  accuses  himself  of  want  of  tact 
as  a  committee-man,  and  mentions  how  on  one  occasion 
Sir  Frederick  Elliott,  an  influential  member  and  ex-In- 
dian official,  by  means  of  suavity  and  cautiousness  of 
expression,  carried  a  motion  which  Spencer  had  not  been 
able  to  accomplish.  "  Let  me  add  that,  though  I  some- 
times failed  in  my  aims  from  want  of  tact,  I  frequently 
succeeded  by  persistence."  That  his  services  were 
valued  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  although  the  usual 
term  of  service  was  three  years,  and  a  year  must  have 
elapsed  before  one  who  had  served  could  become  once 
more  eligible,  yet  he  was  one  of  a  special  committee  ap- 
pointed at  the  Annual  Meeting,  and  was  then  elected 
for  a  second  term.  He  was  thus  connected  with  club 
business  for  seven  consecutive  years.  He  had  long  been 
a  member  of  the  London  Library  Committee.  "  At  this 
my  attendances  were  far  less  regular.  I  suppose  in  part 
because  the  administrative  business,  neither  so  extensive 
nor  so  complex,  attracted  me  less." 

In  many  respects  Spencer  was  a  model  club-man.     In 

his   relations   with   his   fellow   members   he   invariably 

showed  delicacy  and  good  feeling.    It  is  not  enough  to 

say  that  he  was  strictly  courteous,  but  he  realised  that 

255 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  true  spirit  of  club  etiquette  is  for  a  man  to  behave 
with  the  studied  decorum  of  one  who  is  living  not  in  his 
own  house,  but  rather  in  the  house  of  a  friend.  In  his 
manners  and  bearing  he  showed  plenty  of  that  tactful 
good  nature  in  which  he  thought  himself  deficient.  He 
never  offended  anyone  by  loud  speech,  injudicious 
remarks,  or  incautious  behaviour  and  was  ever 
most  punctilious  in  adhering  to  the  small  unwritten 
laws  upon  which  so  much  of  the  comfort  of  club  life 
depends. 

His  craving  for  companionship  and  his  hospitable  im- 
pulses were  always  struggling  against  the  limits  which 
health  and  work  imposed  on  social  intercourse.  As  he 
writes  in  1870 :  "  I  find  more  and  more  that  I  can  man- 
age pretty  well  when  I  am  master  of  my  circumstances; 
but  when  the  circumstances  master  me,  I  am  pretty  sure 
to  go  to  the  wall. ' '  His  morbid  fear  of  the  results  of  ex- 
citement greatly  restricted  his  personal  intercourse  with 
guests,  some  of  whom  have  been  known  during  a  visit  of 
several  days  duration  not  to  have  seen  him  once.  Yet 
no  host  could  have  been  more  solicitous  for  the  comfort 
of  his  guests  than  he  was.  When  in  ordinary  health  he 
entered  with  zest  into  the  amusements  of  the  domestic 
circle.  "  He  could  thoroughly  enjoy  a  good  story," 
says  Miss  Killick,  "  and  his  powers  of  relating  one  were 
splendid."  I  have  heard  him  repeat  a  poem  of  consid- 
erable length — '  The  Northern  Lights  ' — giving  it  in  the 
Lancashire  dialect  with  great  charm.  He  enjoyed  the 
humour  of  it  so  much  that  the  tears  streamed  down  his 
face."  His  conversation  was  singularly  free  from  per- 
sonal gossip,  and  invariably  rose  to  the  general  point  of 
view.  Seldom  adorned  by  graces  of  style,  it  was  always 
256 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

fluent,  correct,  and  clear:  his  deep  rich  voice  adding  to 
the  charm.  The  gift  of  lucid  exposition  was  shown  in 
his  conversation  as  much  as  in  his  writings.  Mr.  Frank 
E.  Lott  mentions  a  visit  in  1871  "  to  Penrhyn  Slate 
quarries  with  Sir  W.  Gull  and  Sir  James  Paget,  at  which 
Mr.  Spencer  pointed  out  the  glacial  scratches  on  some 
of  the  rounded  rocks  in  the  Pass  of  Llanberis;  and  his 
clear  and  vigorous  description  of  the  old  glacier  coming 
down  from  Snowdon,  impressed  me  even  more  than 
when,  a  few  years  later  at  the  School  of  Mines,  Sir  An- 
drew Ramsay  explained  the  same  phenomena  in  his  usual 
interesting  manner." 

He  cannot  be  accused  of  going  out  of  his  way  to 
increase  his  reputation.  From  his  replies  to  offers  of 
academic  and  other  honours,  one  may  gather  that  there 
was  at  bottom  a  sense  of  disappointment  that  such  signs 
of  recognition  had  not  been  made  earlier  in  his  career, 
when  they  might  have  helped  him  in  his  struggle.  Had 
he  been  less  honest  and  outspoken  he  would  have  kept 
this  feeling  to  himself.  Even  such  notoriety  as  could 
not  fail  to  be  associated  with  his  name  was  distasteful, 
leading  him  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  avoid  the  manifesta- 
tions of  it,  and  causing  regret,  and  sometimes  offence,  to 
those  who  wished  to  show  their  regard  for  him.  Lady 
Courtney  writes: — 

We  did  not  realise  Mr.  Spencer's  reputation  till  we 
grew  up  and  came  often  to  London.  Probably  his  fame 
was  not  great  in  general  society  before  that  time.  It 
seemed  to  me  to  culminate  during  the  seventies  and  early 
eighties.  I  was  conscious  during  those  years  that  you 
could  not  mention  his  name  in  many  companies  high  or 
low  without  exciting  a  thrill  of  interest,  and  even  in  the 
257 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

most  unlikely  quarters  his  name  would  be  known  as  that 
of  a  distinguished  man.  I  remember  travelling  from 
Aberdeen  to  Inverness  in  a  third  class  carriage  (not  that 
this  in  Scotland  was  an  unlikely  quarter),  and  hearing 
some  Scotch  farmers,  and  a  minister  from  a  far  away 
northern  village,  discussing  his  books,  and  finding  myself 
unawares  quite  a  centre  of  attraction  when  I  remarked 
that  I  knew  him  in  the  flesh.  But  he  was  far  from  kind 
to  his  disciples  and  admirers,  and  very  disconcerting  to 
those  who  had  contrived  to  gain  a  sight  or  a  word  for 
them.  He  has  himself  told  the  story  how,  when  at  Cairo, 
he  refused  the  request  of  a  distinguished  personage  for 
a  visit.  ...  I  can  add  another  story  of  the  same  period 
— a  Dutch  Judge  of  the  Consular  Courts  was  a  great 
Spencerian,  and  his  wife  came  to  my  sister  and  myself, 
to  beg  us  to  bring  about  a  meeting.  We  thought  and 
thought,  and  finally  hit  upon  a  moonlight  ride  to  the 
Tombs  of  the  Prophets.  Mr.  Spencer  readily  agreed, 
and  the  Judge,  though  he  had  not  ridden  for  years,  and 
was  decidedly  stout,  eagerly  accepted  the  invitation  to 
join  in.  We  started,  and  Mr.  Spencer's  admirer  sidled 
up  to  him  and  began  with  much  pomp  a  carefully  pre- 
pared sentence.  He  was  hardly  under  way  when  up 
came  the  Egyptian  donkey  boys  yelling  and  hitting,  and 
away  went  the  donkeys  in  various  directions,  and  so  the 
comedy  went  on  all  the  time.  Finally,  Mr.  Spencer  abso- 
lutely refused  to  go  to  supper  with  our  kind  Dutch 
friends.  We  went  and  found  all  his  books  spread  out 
on  the  tables — a  pathetic  disappointment  to  the  poor 
gentleman,  who  was  doubtless  very  stiff  the  next  morn- 
ing after  his  unwonted  exercise.  People  talk  of  Mr. 
Spencer  as  having  a  large  measure  of  egotism,  and  he 
certainly  did  not  conceal,  as  most  of  us  do,  what  he  had 
of  that  quality ;  but  a  truly  vain  and  self-regarding  man 
would  surely  not  have  discouraged  admiration  and  flat- 
tery as  he  did.  Not  only  did  he  never  seek,  but  most 
ungraciously  refused,  worldly  honours  and  advancement 
all  through  his  long  life. 

258 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

Again  and  again  he  complained  of  his  lack  of  quick 
perception  of  the  motives  and  actions  of  others,  leading 
him  to  mistaken  judgments  and  wrong  courses  of  con- 
duct. He  thought  he  would  be  an  easy  dupe  at  a  spirit- 
ualistic seance.  While  deficient  in  reading  the  motives 
of  others,  he  was  singularly  wanting  in  ability  to  hide 
his  own.  He  doubted  his  power  to  say  "  No  " ;  but  few 
who  had  to  do  with  him  would  accept  this  as  a  correct 
delineation.  It  used  to  be  said  of  the  late  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  when  Governor  of  Bombay,  that  in  refusing  a 
request  he  did  so  with  more  than  his  usual  courtesy,  lead- 
ing the  applicant  to  think  he  had  got  a  half  promise. 
Spencer  was  not  in  the  habit  of  toning  down  the  terms  of 
a  refusal:  his  reply  being  usually  more  blunt  than 
suave.  He  thought  more  of  making  refusal  plain  than 
of  how  it  would  be  taken :  as  when  requested  by  an 
American  doctor  to  bequeath  to  him  "  the  most  perfect 
and  wonderful  brain  of  this  century."  He  did  not 
mince  the  terms  of  his  refusal.  "  A  bequest  such  as 
that  which  you  wish  I  would  not  make  even  to  my  most 
intimate  friend.  You  may  judge,  therefore,  how  little 
chance  there  is  that  I  can  be  induced  to  make  such  a 
bequest  to  a  stranger."  Perhaps  it  was  a  certain  brus- 
querie  of  manner  and  speech,  joined  with  his  unemo- 
tional coldness  that  prevented  people,  on  first  acquaint- 
ance, feeling  quite  at  ease  in  his  presence.  Manner 
apart,  his  intellectual  and  moral  superiority  could  not 
fail  to  engender  a  feeling  of  remoteness,  which,  however, 
disappeared  on  closer  acquaintance. 

Though  he  was  not  fond  of  the  lower  animals,  the 
infliction  of  suffering  on  them  was  intolerable  to  him. 
His  power  of  sympathy  with  human  beings  was  excep- 
259 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

tionally  strong.  Ill-health  or  distress  of  any  kind,  ex- 
perienced by  relatives,  friends,  acquaintances  (even 
casual  acquaintances),  or  correspondents  whom  perhaps 
he  had  never  seen,  could  not  be  brought  to  his  notice 
without  exciting  his  lively  interest  and  leading  to  meas- 
ures for  alleviation.  Hundreds  of  letters  bear  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  practical  turn  his  sympathy  took.  For 
verbal  expressions  of  sympathy,  his  undemonstrative 
character,  and  his  dislike  to  exaggeration,  unfitted  him. 
As  he  wrote  to  a  friend  who  had  recently  lost  her  hus- 
band: "  I  always  feel  so  strongly  my  inability  to  say 
anything  adequate  in  the  way  of  consolation  that  I  am 
habitually  debarred  from  attempting  it."  To  the  ailing 
members  of  his  household  he  was  "  kind  almost  to  a 
fault."  Into  their  personal  or  family  concerns  he  en- 
tered with  sympathetic  interest:  rejoiced  when  they  re- 
joiced, was  grieved  when  things  went  wrong  with  them, 
warned  them  against  courses  which  involved  risk,  pointed 
out  dangers  which  they  were  likely  to  overlook;  but 
never  said  "  I  told  you  so  "  when  his  counsel  had  not 
been  followed,  and  the  bad  consequences  he  had  foreseen 
had  to  be  faced.  Above  all  he  was  considerate  to  his 
domestic  servants,  there  being  the  fullest  recognition  of 
the  moral  obligations  of  the  employer.  In  ill-health 
every  care  and  comfort  was  bestowed  upon  them.  "  On 
one  occasion,"  writes  Miss  Killick,  "  when  he  was  living 
in  the  country  for  a  few  months,  a  young  woman  had 
been  engaged  to  assist  in  his  household,  and,  observing 
her  pallor  and  general  lassitude,  he  gave  her  strengthen- 
ing medicine,  which,  however,  proved  of  small  assistance, 
and  she  had  to  discontinue  work  and  return  to  her  home. 
Mr.  Spencer  himself  drove  over  one  afternoon  to  see  her, 
260 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

and  gave  her  a  donation ;  and  on  hearing  that  her  bed- 
room was  practically  unfurnished  sent  furniture  for  it 
anonymously."  He  could  never  turn  his  back  upon 
genuine  need,  nor  refuse  to  help  a  worthy  person  or  a 
worthy  cause.  Even  when  a  struggling  author,  he  would 
pinch  himself  to  help  a  friend.  His  generosity  kept 
pace  with  the  improvement  in  his  circumstances.  To 
the  family  of  his  uncle  Henry,  to  Derby  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances, to  young  men  preparing  for  the  battle  of 
life,  he  extended  a  generous  hand.  Several  who  have 
since  taken  worthy  positions  at  home  and  abroad,  still 
remember  him  with  gratitude.  Against  evil  of  all  kinds, 
writes  Rev.  J.  W.  Chadwick,  he  "  projected  himself  with 
an  ardour  and  vehemence  strangely  at  variance  with  the 
idea  that  a  cold,  hard,  dry  intellectuality  was  exhaustive 
of  the  man." 

He  often  referred  to  what  he  called  his  constitutional 
idleness,  seeming  to  be  rather  proud  of  it  than  other- 
wise. If  intellectual  work  consists  in  acquainting  one- 
self with  the  opinions  of  others,  the  charge  may  contain 
an  element  of  truth.  But  even  in  that  sense,  the  man 
who  could  gather  together  and  assimilate  the  wealth  of 
facts  to  be  found  in  his  books,  cannot  have  been  so  want- 
ing in  industry  as  some  of  his  remarks  would  make  it 
appear.  If  there  was  any  defect  of  verbal  memory  it 
was  compensated  for  by  the  readiness  to  grasp  logical 
relations,  as  well  as  the  natural  relations  of  things.  His 
defective  memory  for  words  and  arbitrary  relations,  had, 
in  his  own  opinion,  much  to  do  with  the  development  of 
his  mind,  favouring  as  it  did  internal  building  up  as 
much  as  it  retarded  external  building  up.  The  pleasures 
of  thinking  were  all  the  greater  that  he  did  not  coerce 
261 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  mind.  His  powers  of  analysis  and  synthesis  were 
unsurpassed.  He  had  a  rare  gift  of  seizing  upon  the 
important  aspects  of  a  question,  and  of  keeping  the  unim- 
portant points  in  the  background.  But  for  this  he  could 
not  have  marshalled  his  numerous  facts  so  effectively. 
Complaint  is  sometimes  made  of  the  abstractness  of  his 
terms;  but  such  terms  were  necessitated  by  the  wridth 
of  his  generalisations,  only  a  part  of  the  denotation  of 
which  would  have  been  covered  by  less  abstract  terms. 
A  more  serious  complaint  was  that  he  not  infrequently 
passed  without  warning  from  the  general  and  abstract 
use  of  a  term  or  proposition  to  the  special  and  concrete, 
or  vice  versa,  drawing  conclusions  which,  though  war- 
ranted in  the  one  case,  were  not  warranted  in  the  other. 
In  some  ways  he  gained,  and  in  others  lost,  by  not 
having  had  the  training  given  by  University  life,  which 
as  Rev.  J.  W.  Chadwick  says,  acts  as  "  a  social  mill  in 
which  men  grind  each  other's  angles  down.  Spencer's 
never  were  ground  down:  they  were  acute  angles  al- 
ways." But  argumentative  and  disputatious  as  he  was, 
he  never  argued  for  victory.  Always  there  was  a  prin- 
ciple to  be  contended  for.  Mr.  Francis  Galton  writes : 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  magnificent  intellect  was  gov- 
erned by  a  very  peculiar  character.  It  was  full  of 
whimsies  that  unduly  affected  the  opinion  of  those  who 
did  not  appreciate  its  depth  and  purpose.  His  disposi- 
tion was  acknowledged  by  himself  to  be  contentious;  I 
would  venture  to  consider  it  also  as  being  sometimes  a 
little  perverse. 

My  knowledge  of  him  was  chiefly  due  to  our  both  be- 
ing in  the  habit  of  spending  an  afternoon  hour  or  so  in 
the  then  smoking  room  of  the  Athenaeum  Club,  which  was 
a  very  suitable  place  for  quiet  conversation.  This  is 
262 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

quite  altered  now.  He  always  took  interest  in  my  hob- 
bies, and  I  owe  much  to  his  remarks  and  criticisms,  which 
were  not  however  always  accepted.  He  loved  to  dog- 
matise from  a  priori  axioms,  and  to  criticise,  and  I  soon 
found  that  the  way  to  get  the  best  from  him  was  to  be 
patient  and  not  to  oppose.  He  was  very  thin  skinned 
under  criticism,  and  shrank  from  argument;  it  excited 
him  over  much,  and  was  really  bad  for  his  health.  His 
common  practice  when  pressed  in  a  difficult  position,  was 
to  finger  his  pulse  and  saying:  "  I  must  not  talk  any 
more,"  to  abruptly  leave  the  discussion  unfinished.  Of 
course,  wicked  people  put  a  more  wicked  interpretation 
on  this  habit  than  it  should  in  fairness  bear.  Anyhow, 
when  Spencer  forsook  the  Club  as  he  did  some  years 
ago,  to  seek  greater  quiet  elsewhere,  I  was  conscious  of 
a  void  which  has  never  since  been  filled.  .  .  . 

An  amusing  instance  of  his  strong  leaning  to  a  priori 
reasoning  rather  than  to  experiment  occurred  on  his 
coming  to  a  laboratory  I  had  then  established  for  anthro- 
pometric  purposes.  ...  I  told  Spencer  of  the  difficulty 
of  accounting  for  the  peculiarities  in  the  pattern  of  finger 
prints,  and  that  the  dissections  of  embryos  had  thus  far 
told  no  more  than  that  they  could  be  referred  to  folds 
of  membrane  in  which  the  sudorific  glands  were  formed, 
but  threw  no  light  on  the  reason  why  the  pattern  should 
here  be  a  whorl  and  there  a  loop,  and  so  on.  He  said 
that  dissection  was  not  the  best  way  to  find  out  what  I 
wanted  to  know:  I  ought  to  have  started  from  a  con- 
sideration of  the  uses  of  the  ridges,  and  he  proceeded  to 
elaborate  a  line  of  argument  with  great  fulness  in  his 
usual  sententious  way.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
mouths  of  the  ducts,  being  delicate  and  liable  to  injury 
from  abrasion,  required  the  shield  of  ridges,  and  on  this 
basis  he  reared  a  wonderfully  ingenious  and  complicated 
superstructure  of  imaginary  results  to  which  I  listened 
with  infinite  inward  amusement.  When  he  had  quite 
concluded,  I  replied  with  mock  humility,  that  his  argu- 
ments were  most  beautiful  and  cogent  and  fully  de- 
263 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

served  to  be  true,  but  unfortunately  the  ducts  did  not 
open  out  in  the  shielded  valleys,  but  along  the  exposed 
crests  of  the  ridges.  He  burst  into  a  good  humoured 
laugh,  and  then  told  me  the  story,  which  also  appears 
in  his  Autobiography,  of  Huxley's  saying,  that  if  Spen- 
cer ever  wrote  a  tragedy,  its  plot  would  be  the  slaying 
of  a  beautiful  deduction  by  an  ugly  fact.  .  .  . 

The  power  of  Spencer's  mind  that  I  most  admired,  was 
that  of  widely  founded  generalisations.  Whenever 
doubt  was  hinted  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  his  grounds  for 
making  them,  he  was  always  ready  to  pour  out  a  string 
of  examples  that  seemed  to  have  been,  if  not  in  his  theatre 
of  consciousness  when  he  spoke,  at  all  events  in  an  ante- 
chamber of  it,  whence  they  could  be  summoned  at  will. 
In  more  than  any  other  person  whom  I  have  met,  did 
his  generalisations  strike  me  in  the  light  of  true  "  com- 
posite "  pictures.  Whether  the  examples  he  gave  in 
justification  were  selected  with  a  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious bias,  or  were  taken  at  random,  is  another  matter. 
Anyhow  his  wealth  of  ready  illustration  was  marvellous. 

The  verdicts  on  his  style  have  been  almost  as  divergent 
as  those  on  his  doctrines.  Occasionally,  but  rarely,  it 
has  been  described  as  obscure — a  criticism  open  to  the 
retort  that  the  obscurity  may  be  due  to  the  inability  of 
the  reader  to  grasp  the  meaning,  no  matter  how  it  is  ex- 
pressed. Bearing  in  mind  the  highly  abstruse  nature 
of  his  thought,  one  will  have  to  admit  that  few  writers 
have  so  seldom  left  their  readers  in  doubt.  Burdened 
by  wealth  of  illustration  and  exemplification,  his  style  is 
apt  to  appear  wanting  in  lightness  and  grace :  but  occa- 
sionally "  a  grave  eloquence  lights  up  his  pages."  Its 
massiveness  corresponds  with  the  massiveness  of  his 
thought.  Occasionally  it  is  lightened  by  singularly 
felicitous  words,  or  phrases,  or  passages,  which  have  be- 
264 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

come  part  of  the  English  language — thus  furnishing  ad- 
ditional examples  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Though 
condemned  for  its  "  barbarous  terminology,"  it  has  also 
been  praised  for  its  "  wonderful  simplicity,"  its  "  terse- 
ness, lucidity,  and  precision."  The  author  of  the 
Philosophy  of  Style  had,  naturally,  his  own  ideas 
about  punctuation,  and  was  often  annoyed  at  the  liber- 
ties taken  by  compositors  and  press  readers.  "  The 
structure  of  a  writer's  sentence  is  in  part  the  structure 
of  his  thought. ' '  His  faculty  of  composing,  under  what 
would  be  to  many  very  distracting  circumstances,  was 
remarkable:  showing  his  rare  power  of  concentration — 
of  abstracting  his  thoughts  from  his  surroundings. 
Whether  in  a  racket  court  at  King's  Cross,  or  in  a  sports 
field  at  Kensal  Green,  or  in  a  boat  on  the  Serpentine,  or 
under  the  trees  in  Kensington  Gardens,  he  was  able  to 
carry  on  a  train  of  abstract  thinking,  and  to  dictate  to 
his  secretary,  as  serenely  as  if  he  were  in  the  privacy  of 
his  study.  Unlike  his  friends,  Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes  and 
Professor  Huxley,  who  wrote  and  re-wrote  their  com- 
positions,1 he  made  comparatively  few  changes  in  his 
manuscript.  In  revising  for  future  editions,  however, 
he  made  numerous  changes  in  the  expression,  but  very 
few  in  the  argument. 

One  of  Mr.  Spencer's  traits  (says  Mr.  Troughton), 
was  his  seeming  inability  to  take  in  hand  two  or  more 
things  concurrently.  If,  for  instance,  some  controversy 
occupied  him,  permanent  work  was  for  the  time  being 
put  aside  altogether.  He  had  a  rooted  dislike  to  being 
hurried.  A  sequence  of  this  was  that  he  resented  being 

1  George  Eliot's  Life,  ii.,  99.  Life  of  Professor  Huxley,  ii., 
42,  308. 

265 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

put  under  pressure  to  do  any  piece  of  work  within  a 
given  time.  This  largely  explains  his  reluctance  to  en- 
gage in  controversies,  especially  newspaper  controversies, 
in  which  replies  and  rejoinders  had  to  be  made  on  the 
instant.  The  daily  increments  of  work  accomplished 
were  very  small,  but  the  paucity  of  the  performance 
never  seemed  to  trouble  him,  or  at  all  events  never  stimu- 
lated him  to  quicken  the  pace. 

He  was  an  essentially  methodical  man.  This  charac- 
teristic manifested  itself  alike  in  his  personal  habits  and 
in  the  expression  of  his  thoughts.  His  personal  effects 
were  all  arranged  and  distributed  on  this  principle — 
keys  in  one  pocket,  knife  in  another,  and  so  on.  Still 
more  so  was  this  the  case  with  his  papers  of  all  kinds. 
These  were  all  classified  and  put  away  in  certain  re- 
ceptacles according  to  a  definite  plan,  so  that  when  re- 
quired they  could  be  found  without  any  bother.  When 
the  time  came  for  using  any  particular  group  of  mate- 
rials for  the  work  in  hand,  that  group  would  be  sub- 
jected to  a  sub-classification,  and  so  on,  until  the  mate- 
rials for  a  particular  section  were  assembled  together. 
With  this  orderliness  of  habit,  it  was  not  at  all  difficult, 
when  circumstances  arose  which  involved  a  suspension 
of  work,  to  pick  up  the  thread  again  when  the  time  came 
for  resuming  it. 

Some  light  is  thrown  upon  his  general  reading  by  two 
of  his  secretaries.  Referring  to  the  period  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighties,  Mr.  W.  H.  Hudson  says : — 

Once  we  went  through  some  of  the  eighteenth  century 
novelists,  and  he  was  specially  interested  in  Humphrey 
Clinker.  He  was  also  struck  by  the  delicate  art  of  W. 
D.  Howells,  though  he  tired  after  two  or  three  of  his 
stories.  I  recall  that  he  thought  much  of  Shakespeare 's 
witty  dialogue  (as  in  "  Much  Ado  ")  forced  and  child- 
ish. I  think  of  all  the  novelists  I  read  to  him,  he  most 
enjoyed  Thackeray. 

266 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

Reading  could  hardly  be  called  one  of  his  pastimes 
(says  Mr.  Troughton,  with  reference  to  a  later  period), 
unless  it  was  reading  the  daily  and  weekly  journals,  or 
rather  listening  to  them,  for  reading  them  aloud  was 
one  of  my  functions  almost  from  the  beginning.  Cer- 
tainly his  appetite  for  the  Times  was  invariably  keen 
and  he  followed  the  reading  of  it  with  close  attention, 
accompanying  it  with  a  running  commentary  on  events 
and  opinions  recorded,  and  noting  anything  especially 
bearing  on  his  own  work.  This  reading  of  the  paper 
was  the  first  order  of  the  day,  and  moreover  was  always 
done  in  a  certain  sequence — summary  first,  then  the  gist 
of  the  leading  articles,  followed  by  the  foreign  news,  and 
then  the  miscellaneous  news — this  was  the  order  down 
to  the  last  month  of  his  life,  when  he  usually  dropped 
asleep  before  it  had  proceeded  far.  Then,  in  addition 
to  the  morning  paper  there  was  the  evening  paper,  an 
invariable  item  in  the  day's  programme,  while  the  vari- 
ous weeklies  gave  him  enough  mental  food  to  tide  over 
Sunday.  Of  the  constant  succession  of  books  which 
reached  him — mostly  of  a  grave  character — a  glance 
usually  sufficed,  and  many  of  them  were  put  away  on 
the  shelves  without  even  that.  Fiction  he  had  little 
taste  for,  and  only  at  very  long  intervals  read  any. 

Music  was  a  great  pleasure  to  him  (Miss  Killick 
writes),  and  his  taste  in  the  matter  of  composers  good. 
In  early  life  he  enjoyed  singing  in  glees,  and  in  his  clos- 
ing years  liked  to  hear  them  played  on  the  piano.  But 
in  music,  as  in  everything  else,  he  had  his  own  ideas  how 
certain  passages  should  be  rendered,  and  they  were  as  a 
rule  contrary  to  the  prescribed  methods. 

Spencer  "  disciplines  himself  to  amusements,"  wrote 
Dr.  Youmans  in  1871.  This  was  quite  true.  The  dis- 
ciplinary process  was  also  recommended  to  his  friends. 
"  Pray  follow  my  example,"  he  advises  Dr.  Gazelles,  "  in 
taking  as  much  rest  and  amusement  as  is  needful  for 
267 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

your  restoration,  and  be  sure  that,  though  at  first  you 
may,  in  consequence  of  having  wedded  yourself  to  work, 
find  amusement  dreary  and  uninteresting,  you  will  in 
course  of  time  habituate  yourself  to  it,  and  begin  to  find 
life  more  tolerable."  While  passionately  fond  of  the 
country  and  country  pleasures,  he  cared  little  in  boyhood 
and  youth  for  out-door  games.  Of  skating  he  was  very 
fond,  and  Mr.  Frank  Lott  remembers  "  the  very  grace- 
ful figure  he  always  made  on  the  ice."  After  the  break- 
down in  1855  he  began  the  sedulous  pursuit  of  means  for 
restoring  his  health.  At  first  the  quest  was  mainly  not 
for  pleasurable  occupations,  but  for  those  involving  bod- 
ily exertion  and  inducing  sleep.  After  a  time  pleasur- 
able pursuits  were  sought.  But  here  also  not  the  pleas- 
ure at  the  time,  but  the  beneficial  after-effects  were  the 
main  considerations.  He  had  few  indoor  relaxations. 
Backgammon  and  whist  were  played  occasionally;  but 
he  was  not  good  at  the  latter,  nor  did  he  like  playing 
for  money.  Miss  Charlotte  Shickle,  who  sometimes 
joined  him  in  a  rubber  at  Queen's  Gardens,  informed 
the  present  writer  that  it  was  an  understanding  that  he 
would  pay  his  losings  when  he  lost,  but  would  not  accept 
winnings  when  he  won.  This  was  his  invariable  rule. 
His  ideal  of  life  found  no  place  for  asceticism,  neither 
for  the  asceticism  due  to  religious  or  moral  feeling,  nor 
for  that  which  is  dictated  by  the  assumed  demands  of 
business.  "  Life  is  not  for  learning,  nor  is  life  for  work- 
ing; but  learning  and  working  are  for  life."  A  strange 
maxim  this  to  come  from  one  who  scorned  delights  and 
lived  laborious  days  in  order  to  complete  a  task  he  had 
deliberately  imposed  on  himself.  While  primarily  valu- 
ing life  and  health  for  the  happiness  they  afforded,  he 
268 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

valued  them  next  as  the  means  of  accomplishing  his 
work.  From  worldly  ambition,  the  desire  to  amass 
wealth — to  "get  on  "  in  the  ordinary  sense — he  was 
singuarly  free.  He  often  spoke  as  if  he  had  a  mission — 
a  message  to  deliver  to  the  world.  To  this  mission  every- 
thing was  subordinated. 

His  sincerity,  truthfulness  and  honesty,  impressed  all 
who  knew  him.  "  He  was  absolutely  sincere  himself," 
writes  Miss  Killick,  "  and  could  not  tolerate  the  very 
smallest  deviation  from  the  truth  in  others.  Although 
at  times  he  might  appear  to  condemn  unjustly,  investi- 
gation always  showed  that  some  necessary  data  were 
unknown  to  him,  and  therefore  his  judgment,  while  ap- 
parently unsound,  was  in  accordance  with  his  knowledge 
of  the  facts."  Suspicion  of  the  motives  of  others  was 
characteristic  of  himself,  as  well  as  of  his  father.  De- 
scribing his  first  interview,  Mr.  Troughton  says: 

I  had  been  informed  that  Mr.  Spencer  was  in  a  pre- 
carious state  of  health,  so  much  so  that  whoever  filled  the 
post  could  not  expect  to  retain  it  for  more  than  twelve 
months  at  the  outside.  But  really  there  was  nothing  in 
his  appearance  to  suggest  any  apprehensions  of  early 
demise — on  the  contrary,  he  struck  me  as  being  a  man  of 
more  than  average  vigour:  his  upright  bearing  as  he 
entered  the  room,  his  clear  crisp  voice,  his  searching  gaze, 
seemed  to  betoken  a  hale,  though  perhaps  not  a  hearty, 
physique.  My  unpunctuality  called  for  serious  notice. 
The  time  appointed  was  ten  o'clock.  Why  was  I  late? 
The  explanation  being  forthcoming,  a  multitude  of  ques- 
tions followed  in  quick  succession.  His  inquisitiveness 
rather  took  me  aback,  but  what  struck  me  most  was  the 
brusque  way  in  which  he  delivered  his  questions,  and  the 
way  in  which,  when  putting  them,  he  concentrated  his 
gaze  upon  me.  Surely  this  man  must  have  practised 
269 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

a  good  deal  at  the  bar,  I  thought.  I  came  to  know  after- 
wards that  this  was  only  a  bit  of  affectation.  Some  years 
later,  when  about  to  fill  up  a  vacancy  on  his  domestic 
staff,  he  deputed  me  to  interview  the  applicants:  in- 
structing me  in  detail  as  to  the  proper  method  to  pursue 
in  interrogating  them.  It  was  just  the  same  as  that 
which  he  adopted  at  my  first  encounter  with  him.  .  .  . 

Numerous  as  were  the  instances  in  which  Mr.  Spencer 
appeared  to  distrust  those  with  whom  he  had  business  or 
professional  relations,  it  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that 
in  more  than  a  very  few  of  them  did  he  harbour  any 
positive  suspicion.  He  was  a  man  who  in  everything 
he  did,  even  in  trivial  matters,  was  guided  by  principle, 
the  principle  in  each  case  being  that  which  by  a  process 
of  reasoning  he  had  found  to  be  valid.  Because  a  large 
proportion  of  men  are  either  unreliable  or  dishonest, 
therefore  it  must  be  assumed  for  the  time  being,  that  the 
man  with  whom  you  have  dealings  belongs  to  that  num- 
ber. To  a  certain  extent  the  world  at  large  acts  on  this 
assumption,  but  Mr.  Spencer  carried  it  to  extreme 
lengths,  and  with  entire  disregard  of  the  law  of  prob- 
ability. I  more  than  once  told  him  that  in  the  City, 
where  office  boys  are  more  trusted  than  he  trusted  men 
of  standing,  business  would  come  to  a  standstill  if  his 
principle  were  carried  out  to  the  letter. 

He  could  not  readily  adapt  himself  to  other  people's 
ways,  had  very  decided  views  as  to  how  things  should 
be  made  or  done,  and  was  fidgety  and  irritable  when  they 
were  not  made  or  done  as  he  thought  they  should  be. 
Though  he  was,  in  consequence,  not  easy  to  get  on  with 
in  the  house,  yet  he  lived  with  the  same  hostess  at 
Queen's  Gardens  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
While  possessing  wide  knowledge,  and  a  singular  power 
of  tracing  the  working  of  great  cosmic  forces,  he  was  as 
innocent  as  a  child  in  many  of  the  ways  of  the  world. 
270 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

Master  as  he  himself  was  in  dealing  with  wide  generali- 
ties, and  in  marshalling  and  co-ordinating  the  details 
on  which  they  rested,  he  overlooked  the  fact  that  most 
people  content  themselves  with  passing  from  detail  to  de- 
tail without  a  thought  of  a  connecting  link  between  them. 
They  think  from  hand  to  mouth,  as  well  as  live  from 
hand  to  mouth.  Unable  to  grasp  the  principle  which 
gives  unity  to  details,  they  are  liable  to  be  plunged  into 
confusion  when  told  that  they  should  take  it  as  their 
guide.  Allow  them  to  ignore  the  general  rule,  all  goes, 
well  until  some  unexpected  event  takes  place  which  a 
wider  outlook  might  have  foreseen.  If  he  himself  had 
had  the  carrying  out  of  his  views  on  housekeeping,  doubt- 
less he  would  have  justified  their  soundness.  But  hav- 
ing to  depute  this  to  others  he  would  have  been  well  ad- 
vised had  he  kept  many  of  his  theories  to  himself.  Em- 
bued  with  the  notion  that  convention  reigned  supreme 
within  the  house  as  without,  he  continually  fought 
against  it.  He  had  his  whims  and  his  crotchets — he  was 
exacting  in  the  sense  of  insisting  that  duties  undertaken 
should  be  performed — he  was  not  easily  satisfied.  But 
the  attractiveness  of  his  personality  not  only  covered  a 
multitude  of  foibles,  but  claimed  the  loyalty  of  those  who 
lived  with  him,  and  who  knew  the  deeply  sympathetic 
nature  that  lay  beneath  a  certain  brusqueness  of  man- 
ner. Of  his  relations  with  Spencer,  extending  from  the 
end  of  1888  till  the  end  of  1903,  Mr.  Troughton  writes : 

Brusque  as  Mr.  Spencer  often  was  in  addressing  those 
about  him,  he  invariably  treated  me  with  courtesy.  I 
cannot  call  to  mind  a  single  occasion  during  the  many 
years  I  was  in  daily  contact  with  him  when  he  gave  way 
to  temper  with  me,  and  I  have  many  remembrances  of 
271 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  kindly  feeling  he  showed  towards  me.  Beneath  the 
asperity  of  manner  which  often  showed  itself,  there  was 
a  really  sympathetic  nature  ready  to  manifest  itself  when 
circumstances  gave  the  needful  stimulus. 

Would  Spencer  have  made  a  successful  administrator? 
If  he  had  taken  to  teaching,  one  may  say  with  confidence 
that  as  far  as  high  aims,  sound  methods,  and  single- 
minded  devotion  could  command  success,  he  would  have 
made  his  mark.  But  it  is  questionable  whether  he  would 
have  been  successful  in  the  administrative  side  of  school- 
work.  His  want  of  tact,  bluntness  of  speech,  lack  of 
quick  and  true  perception  of  character,  and  impatience 
with  the  weaknesses  of  average  human  nature,  would 
have  stood  in  the  way  of  smooth  working  with  subordi- 
nates, colleagues,  educational  authorities,  and,  perhaps 
most  important  of  all,  with  parents.  Had  he  adhered  to 
railway  engineering,  there  would  doubtless  have  been 
some  daring  feats  of  constructive  skill  to  be  recorded; 
but  whether  capital  and  labour  would  have  co-operated 
with  him  is  a  moot  question.  Given  his  highly  evolved 
humanity  of  the  future,  he  would  probably  have  proved 
a  successful  administrator;  with  humanity  as  we  know 
it,  the  issue  would  have  been  more  than  doubtful.  Mr. 
Francis  Galton  writes: 

He  was  a  most  impracticable  administrator  on  the  only 
occasion  in  which  I  saw  him  put  fairly  to  the  test.  We 
were  both  members  of  the  Committee  of  the  Athenaeum 
Club,  at  a  long  by-gone  time,  when  the  dining  room 
management  was  bad,  and  there  was  much  discontent. 
Spencer  moved  and  carried  the  appointment  of  a  Spe- 
cial House  Committee,  to  consist  of  only  three  members.. 
He,  of  course,  was  Chairman,  another  was  one  of  the 
prominent  malcontent  members,  and  he  persuaded  me  to 
272 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

be  the  third,  as  having  no  official  duties  and  therefore 
presumably  a  man  of  leisure.  I  accepted  the  nomination 
with  great  misgivings,  which  after  events  fully  justified. 
A  more  comically  ineffective  Committee  than  ours  I 
never  sat  upon.  Spencer  insisted  on  treating  the  pettiest 
questions  as  matters  of  serious  import,  whose  principles 
had  to  be  fully  argued  and  understood  before  action 
should  be  taken,  with  the  consequence  that  we  made  no 
progress.  Many  funny  scenes  took  place,  one  was  with 
the  butcher,  who  had  supplied  tough  meat.  Spencer 
enlarged  to  us  on  the  subject  of  toughness  in  the  same 
elaborate  and  imposing  language  with  which  his  writ- 
ings abound,  and  when  the  butcher  appeared  he  severely 
charged  him  with  supplying  meat  that  contained  an  un- 
due proportion  of  connective  tissue.  The  butcher  was 
wholly  nonplussed,  being  unable  to  understand  the 
charge  and  conscious,  as  I  suspect,  of  some  secret  mis- 
doing to  which  the  accusation  might  refer. 

An  amusing  instance  of  the  failure  of  some  of  his 
theories,  when  brought  to  the  test  of  experience,  is  re- 
lated by  Lady  Courtney. 

Of  course  he  was  an  inveterate  critic.  He  says  so 
himself.  One  form  this  characteristic  took  was  criticism 
of  our  various  governesses  for  their  management  of  us — 
on  one  occasion  with  amusing  results.  He  had  com- 
plained to  my  mother  that  one  of  these  much  suffering 
ladies,  and  an  especially  indulgent  one,  was  checking 
and  destroying  our  natural  instincts  by  her  rules  and 
instructions,  mainly,  I  think,  because  she  would  not 
let  us  take  off  our  jackets  and  either  give  them  to  her  to 
carry  or  throw  them  about.  Mother  and  the  governess 
talked  it  over  together,  and  Mr.  Spencer  was  asked  if 
he  would  like  to  take  us  out  himself  for  the  afternoon 
walk,  and  readily  agreed.  So  off  he  started  with  some 
half  dozen  girls,  whose  ages  ranged  from  six  to  fourteen, 
up  the  hill  into  the  woods.  We  had  heard  all  about  the 
273 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

complaint  of  our  governess,  and  had  had  a  pretty  broad 
hint  that  we  might  behave  as  we  liked.  Two  of  the 
younger  ones  began  at  once  to  play  the  fool,  and  got  so 
excited  and  outrageous  that  my  eldest  sister  and  I  tried 
to  second  Mr.  Spencer's  efforts  to  control  them.  In  vain 
and  in  vain.  He  eventually  stamped  his  foot  and  said 
"  When  I  say  no,  I  mean  no!"  Finally  they  managed 
to  lead  him  into  a  pit  full  of  dead  beech  leaves  and 
carried  off  his  hat  which  had  fallen  off — ' '  you  rude  chil- 
dren!" was  his  exclamation,  and  all  round  behind  the 
trees  echoed  r-r-r-rude  children — for  he  rolled  his  r's 
slightly — or  at  any  rate  we  thought  so.  He  came  home  a 
wiser  and  a  sadder  man,  and  told  my  mother  at  dinner 
that  two  of  her  children  were  very  headstrong,  and  would 
need  a  good  deal  of  control.  ...  I  know  that  he  inter- 
fered less  in  future  with  our  governesses. 

Mr.  Spencer  certainly  had  a  keener  desire  than  most 
men  to  get  other  people  to  adopt  and  carry  out  his 
views,  even  on  quite  trifling  subjects:  such  as  how  to 
light  a  fire,  or  revive  it  when  it  was  low,  the  hanging  of 
pictures,  the  colours  in  a  carpet,  or  of  the  flowers  on  a 
dinner  table,  the  proper  shape  of  an  inkstand,  and  a 
thousand  other  matters ;  and  he  allowed  what  he  thought 
an  unreasonable  way  of  doing  these  things,  even  when 
they  had  nothing  to  do  with  himself,  to  unduly  dis- 
turb his  peace.  Indeed,  the  commonplace  person  would 
have  said  the  philosophic  temper  was  curiously  absent 
in  this  great  philosopher — so  much  so,  that  as  he  grew 
older  and  more  nervous  and  delicate,  his  friends  almost 
unconsciously  abstained  from  arguing  if  they  differed 
from  him,  unless  they  could  put  their  point  humorously, 
for  a  good  joke  always  found  Mr.  Spencer  appreciative. 
Alluding  to  this  irritability  of  temperament,  I  remem- 
ber Professor  Tyndall  saying  at  my  father's  house  in 
London,  Mr.  Spencer  standing  by:  "He'd  be  a  much 
nicer  fellow  if  he  had  a  good  swear  now  and  then  " — 
and  our  hilarity  at  the  very  notion  of  Mr.  Spencer 
swearing. 

274 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

An  unsparing  critic  of  others,  how  did  he  take  criti- 
cism of  himself?  He  was  too  ready  to  say  that  he  had 
been  "  misunderstood  "  or  "  misrepresented,"  and  too 
prone  to  attribute  the  one  or  the  other  to  moral  obliquity. 
But  he  never  deliberately  took  an  unfair  advantage  of  an 
opponent.  Polemical  writing  was  apt  to  entail  "  mis- 
chievous consequences  ' '  on  his  health.  Foreseeing  these, 
he  often  retired  from  a  contest  at  an  early  stage,  when 
the  issue  was  as  yet  uncertain;  thereby  causing  annoy- 
ance to  his  opponent,  besides  laying  himself  open  to  the 
suspicion  that  he  had  begun  to  feel  a  little  uncertain 
of  his  ground.  Between  personal  and  impersonal  criti- 
cism he  drew  a  sharp  line.  In  the  former  he  seldom 
indulged,  and  if  in  the  heat  of  controversy  he  was  led 
into  the  use  of  personalities,  he  took  care  not  to  per- 
petuate them.  Purely  impersonal  attacks  on  his  doc- 
trines seldom  disturbed  his  equanimity,  though  they 
might  lead  to  sharp  thrusts  of  intellectual  polemic.  It 
was  different  with  attacks  on  his  character.  To  these 
he  was  more  than  usually  sensitive. 

Spencer's  habit  (the  drawbacks  of  which  he  did  not 
seem  to  realise)  of  throwing  down  a  book  when  he  dis- 
agreed with  any  of  its  cardinal  propositions,  afforded 
some  justification  for  the  suggestion  that  he  was  unwill- 
ing to  deal  with  arguments  and  facts  opposed  to  his 
own  views.  An  accusation  of  want  of  candour  would 
have  greatly  distressed  him,  conscious  as  he  was  of  abso- 
lute loyalty  to  his  convictions.  The  fact  was  that,  though 
his  allegiance  to  the  truth  never  wavered — not  a  single 
instance  being  known  of  his  declining  to  acknowledge  as 
true  what  he  believed  to  be  true — he  sometimes  failed 
to  reach  it,  owing  to  the  engrossment  of  his  mind  with 
275 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  creations  of  his  ever-active  constructive  imagination 
precluding  the  admission  of  alien  ideas.  The  shortcom- 
ing was  intellectual,  not  moral — was  due  to  the  limita- 
tions of  human  intelligence,  even  of  the  highest.  What- 
ever his  moral  shortcomings,  disloyalty  to  truth  was  not 
one  of  them.  He  who  could  only  contemplate  ' '  from  the 
heights  of  thought  that  far-off  life  of  the  race  never  to 
be  enjoyed  by  [him],  but  only  by  a  remote  posterity," 
would  have  been  the  last  to  claim  immunity  from  the  in- 
firmities of  human  nature.  But  we  require  to  be  re- 
minded that  the  very  greatness  of  the  man  has  helped  to 
bring  too  much  into  relief  both  the  shortcomings  of  his 
character  and  the  defects  of  his  work.  Take  him  for  all 
in  all,  he  was  intellectually  one  of  the  grandest  and  mor- 
ally one  of  the  noblest  men  that  have  ever  lived.  His  life 
was  devoted  to  a  single  purpose — the  establishing  of 
truth  and  righteousness  as  he  understood  them.  The 
value  of  a  life  of  self-sacrifice  for  a  lofty  ideal  is  inesti- 
mable at  all  times,  and  is  especially  so  in  the  present  day 
of  advertisement,  push,  and  getting  on  in  the  world. 
This  will  endure  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  his  philo- 
sophical opinions.  ' '  In  the  whole  story  of  the  searchers 
for  truth,"  said  the  Times,  just  after  his  death,  "  there 
is  no  instance  of  devotion  to  noble  aims  surpassing  his 
— courage,  baffling  ill-health,  and  proof  against  years  of 
discouragement,  unwearied  patience,  wise  economy  of 
powers,  and  confidence  in  the  future  recognition  of  the 
value  of  his  work." 


276 


CHAPTER  XXX 

SPENCER'S  PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF 
THOUGHT 

BY  way  of  criticism  on  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  much 
has  been  written  about  its  a  priori  character.  Spencer's 
habit  of  setting  out  from  first  principles  and  ever  re- 
turning to  them — his  constant  endeavour  to  verify  every 
inductive  generalisation  by  showing  it  to  be  deducible 
from  some  higher  generalisation — has  been  too  readily 
taken  to  imply  that  his  philosophy  does  not  rest  on  the 
solid  ground  of  nature.  Such  an  opinion  is  a  survival 
of  the  Baconian  reaction  against  the  a  priori  methods  of 
the  schoolmen.  It  ought  not  now-a-days  to  be  necessary 
to  repeat  the  truism  that  the  progress  of  science  depends 
not  on  observation  and  experiment  alone  nor  on  theoris- 
ing and  hypothesis  alone,  but  on  the  co-operation  of  these 
methods.  Both  are  essential,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
both  are  pursued  in  all  departments  of  knowledge, 
though  not  in  an  equal  degree.  The  nature  of  the  phe- 
nomena to  be  investigated,  the  stage  the  enquiry  has 
reached,  and  the  mental  endowments  of  the  investigator, 
each  or  all  of  these  determine  which  of  the  two  methods 
should  be  chiefly  followed.  Taking  these  considerations 
into  account,  the  scientific  enquirer  shows  his  skill  in  so 
combining  the  two  complementary  methods  as  to  avoid 
the  one  and  the  other  of  two  dangers  that  lie  in  the 
path  of  the  seeker  after  truth.  When  theoretical  specu- 
277 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

lation  predominates  there  is  the  risk  of  losing  touch 
with  realities.  When  it  is  neglected  in  favour  of  obser- 
vation and  experiment  there  is  apt  to  be  aimless  groping 
in  the  dark.  The  strict  follower  of  experiment  and  ob- 
servation reminds  one  of  the  man  who  had  collected  an 
encyclopaedic  mass  of  information  which  he  could  not 
use,  and  of  whom  an  Irish  friend  remarked:  "  Yes,  he 
has  got  all  the  answers,  but  he  has  not  got  the  ques- 
tions." Unassisted  by  the  guidance  of  hypothesis,  ex- 
periment and  observation  are  apt  to  land  the  investiga- 
tor in  a  labyrinth  out  of  which  he  has  to  be  assisted  by 
some  one  possessing  the  clue.  Mr.  Darwin,  one  of  the 
most  painstaking  of  observers  and  experimentalists,  was 
well  aware  how  indispensable  deductive  reasoning  is  in 
the  course  of  inductive  inquiry.  "  No  one,"  he  said, 
"  could  be  a  good  observer,  unless  he  was  an  active 
theoriser. "  ' '  Without  speculation  there  is  no  good  and 
original  observation."  But  the  limitations  of  faculty 
rarely  allow  of  the  same  individual  possessing  superior 
excellence  both  as  a  speculative  thinker  and  as  an  ob- 
server or  experimentalist.  It  has  been  said  by  way  of 
disparagement  of  Spencer,  that  he  was  not  a  specialist, 
or  expert.  Had  he  been  so  he  could  not  have  taken  the 
wide  view  he  did  of  the  whole  domain  of  knowledge.  Be- 
sides the  consideration  of  constitutional  aptitude  for  the 
one  or  the  other,  there  is  the  further  consideration  that 
specialising  absorbs  a  great  deal  of  time.  To  acquire  a 
minute  acquaintance  with  details  is  often  the  labour  of 
a  lifetime.  The  specialist  has  rarely  the  time,  and  still 
more  rarely  the  aptitude,  to  follow  up  wide  generalisa- 
tions. To  disparage,  therefore,  the  work  of  one  who 
takes  a  wide  survey  of  the  field  of  knowledge,  because  in 
278 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

matters  of  detail  he  is  not  equal  to  one  who  has  devoted 
his  life  to  a  very  small  portion  of  that  field,  indicates 
an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  limitations  of  human 
faculty  and  of  human  life.  The  organiser  of  knowledge 
would  abdicate  his  function  were  he  to  attempt  to  emu- 
late the  specialist's  acquaintance  with  details.  His  func- 
tion is  not  to  accumulate  a  store  of  individual  facts,  but 
to  co-ordinate  the  facts  supplied  him,  and  reduce  them  to 
their  most  general  forms.  Moreover,  as  already  said,  the 
needs  of  science  are  not  always  the  same.  Accumulation 
of  data  may,  at  one  time,  be  too  far  in  advance  of  organi- 
sation ;  just  as  theorising  may,  at  any  other  time,  be  too 
far  ahead  of  accumulation.  The  necessity  for  the  guid- 
ance of  theory  was  emphasised  by  Professor  Huxley  in 
the  testimonial  he  gave  to  Spencer  in  1860,  when  the  sys- 
tem of  philosophy  was  planned.  "  Science  would  stag- 
nate if  the  co-ordination  of  its  data  did  not  accompany 
their  accumulation. ' '  Professor  Huxley  saw  clearly  that 
a  man  was  needed  to  co-ordinate  and  systematise  the 
facts  and  conceptions  that  had  accumulated — to  carry  an 
"  illuminating  conception  through  all  the  departments 
of  experience."  Spencer  came  to  supply  the  want  by 
giving  to  the  idea  of  evolution  a  development  and  appli- 
cation hitherto  undreamt  of.1  That  he  was  successful 
in  this  respect  has  been  freely  acknowledged  by  those 
best  able  to  judge.  "  In  these  days  of  increasingly 
straitened  speculation  it  is  well,"  says  Professor  Lloyd 
Morgan,  "  that  we  should  feel  the  influence  of  a  thinker 
whose  powers  of  generalisation  have  seldom  been 
equalled  and  perhaps  never  surpassed." 

1  See  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  letter,  dated  2  December,  1868  (chap,  xii., 
p.  200). 

279 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

The  dread  of  hypothesis  and  deductive  reasoning  was 
for  a  time  a  healthy  reaction  against  the  methods  of  the 
schoolmen,  but  it  is  mischievous  instead  of  salutary 
when  carried  to  extremes.  What  Professor  Meldola  says 
of  Biology  is  true  of  other  branches  of  science.  "  In 
the  case  of  the  purely  literary  treatment  of  biological 
problems  by  writers  who  are  not  experts,  the  danger 
of  over-weighting  the  science  with  hypothesis  is  much 
exaggerated.  "Writers  of  this  class  are  often  capable  of 
taking  a  wider  and  more  philosophic  grasp  of  a  problem 
than  a  pure  specialist,  and  ideas  of  lasting  value  have 
sometimes  emanated  from  such  sources.  .  .  .  The  philo- 
sophic faculty  is  quite  as  powerful  an  agent  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  science  as  the  gift  of  acquiring  new  knowl- 
edge by  observation  and  experiment."  It  is  not  in  the 
interest  of  science  for  those  gifted  with  unusual  specula- 
tive ability  to  keep  the  brake  applied  on  their  special 
endowment  so  as  to  secure  leisure  for  observation  and 
experiment,  any  more  than  it  would  be  in  the  interests 
of  science  for  singularly  gifted  observers  and  experimen- 
talists to  slight  the  accumulation  of  facts  in  order  to  soar 
__  into  the  regions  of  speculationi  ^To  restrict  the  free  play 
of  special  endowments  is  the  certain  road  to  common- 
/  place  results.  Each  should  do  what  he  can  do  best.  He 
who  is  endowed  with  the  rare  gift  of  organising  knowl- 
edge should  exercise  that  gift  to  the  full,  and  he  who  has 
the  less  rare,  but  equally  valuable,  gift  of  accumulating 
/  knowledge  should  make  full  use  of  it.  Just  as  it  is  bad 
policy  to  put  checks  on  experiment  and  observation;  so 
also  is  it  unwise  to  clip  the  wings  of  speculation.  It 
is  far  better  that  a  Darwin  and  a  Spencer  should  each 
exercise  to  the  full  his  characteristic  intellectual  endow- 
280 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

ment  and  pursue  the  scientific  method  such  endowment 
favours,  than  that  a  Darwin  should  try  to  be  like  a 
Spencer,  or  a  Spencer  try  to  be  like  a  Darwin. 

That  Spencer  came  in  the  fulness  of  time  to  render  an 
all-important  service  to'  modern  thought,  and  that  his 
mission  was  successful,  are  clearly  set  forth  in  the  fol- 
lowing sketch,  for  which  the  present  writer  is  indebted 
to  Mr.  Hector  Macpherson : 

It  may  be  fairly  claimed  for  Herbert  Spencer  that  he 
revived  speculative  thinking  in  this  country,  and  inau- 
gurated a  new  system  of  philosophy.  When  Spencer 
came  upon  the  scene  philosophy  was  at  a  low  ebb.  In  one 
of  his  essays  J.  S.  Mill  bears  decisive  testimony  on  this 
head.  In  his  review  of  Professor  Sedgwick's  "  Discourse 
on  the  Studies  of  Cambridge  1835,"  reprinted  in  his 
Dissertations,  Mill  says:  "  England  once  stood  at  the 
head  of  European  philosophy.  Where  stands  she  now? 
Consult  the  general  opinion  of  Europe.  The  celebrity  of 
England  in  the  present  day  rests  upon  her  docks,  her 
canals  and  her  railways.  In  intellect  she  is  distinguished 
only  for  a  kind  of  solid  good  sense,  free  from  extrava- 
gance, but  also  void  of  lofty  aspirations."  Mill  goes  on 
to  complain  of  the  absence  of  investigation  of  truth  as 
truth,  of  thought  for  the  sake  of  thought.  For  this  state 
of  things  there  was  an  obvious  reason.  Science  had 
eclipsed  philosophy  in  the  popular  regard.  As  I  have 
said  elsewhere—"  The  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury were  years  of  great  fermentation.  The  practical 
energies  of  the  nation  freed  from  the  great  strain  of  the 
Continental  wars  found  new  outlets  in  commerce  and  in- 
dustry. Scientific  study  of  Nature,  no  longer  tabooed  by 
theology,  demonstrated  its  validity  by  an  imposing  rec- 
ord of  inventions  and  discoveries,  whose  influence  on  the 
national  prosperity  was  at  once  dramatic  and  all  embrac- 
ing. Science  became  the  idol  of  the  hour.  It  was  inevi- 
table that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  reduce  to  some- 
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LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

thing  like  order  the  ever-increasing  mass  of  facts.  Since 
the  days  of  Bacon  thinkers  have  endeavoured  to  weave 
the  facts  of  science  into  a  unified  system.  Whewell's 
History  and  Philosophy  of  the  Inductive  Sciences  was  an 
attempt  in  this  direction.  Unfortunately,  just  when 
Whewell  was  engaged  upon  the  task  of  generalisation 
and  interpretation,  epoch-making  discoveries  were  being 
made,  calculated  to  change  the  entire  foundations  of 
scientific  and  philosophic  thought,  for  which  no  place 
was  found  in  his  work;  such  as  the  conservation  and 
dissipation  of  energy,  the  variation  of  species,  and  or- 
ganic evolution." 

Next  came  Comte.  Valuable  as  was  Comte  's  contribu- 
tion to  the  higher  thought  of  the  time,  his  influence  on 
the  philosophic  side  was  rendered  sterile  by  the  arbi- 
trary line  which  he  drew  between  the  known  and  the 
unknown.  Many  of  the  phenomena  which  science  to-day 
is  bringing  into  the  region  of  knowledge  were  declared 
by  Comte  to  belong  to  the  region  of  the  unknowable,  to 
peer  into  which  was  a  foolish  waste  of  time.  He  tabooed 
all  enquiries  into  the  nature  of  gravitation,  light,  heat, 
electricity,  etc.  All  enquiries  into  origins  were  dismissed 
as  ontological  speculations.  Hampered  by  his  restricted 
method,  he  could  get  no  further  than  the  division  of  phe- 
nomena into  six  classes — Mathematics,  Astronomy,  Phys- 
ics, Chemistry,  Biology,  and  Sociology.  He  clearly 
enough  showed  the  relation  between  the  sciences,  but  his 
limited  conception  of  philosophy  prevented  him  from 
tracing  them  to  a  common  root.  Comte  left  the  great 
problem  of  the  unification  of  the  sciences  unsolved;  he 
even  declared  it  insoluble. 

The  philosophy  of  J.  S.  Mill  was  also  inadequate  to  the 
task  of  assimilating  and  unifying  the  new  facts  of 
science.  Mill's  empirical  theory  of  knowledge  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  trace  the  bewildering  phenomena  of 
the  Cosmos  to  a  common  root. 

Up  till  the  time  of  Whewell  the  mechanical  conception 
of  Nature  held  sway — a  conception  which  threw  great 
282 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

obstacles  in  the  way  of  discovering  unity  in  Nature.  If 
we  treat  the  Universe  as  a  vast  machine  we  do  not  readily 
discover  the  idea  of  unity.  Between  the  various  parts 
of  the  machine  there  may  be  no  necessary  unity,  which 
indeed  may  exist  only  in  the  mind  of  the  constructor. 
To  the  mechanical  conception  was  largely  due  the  waning 
influence  of  philosophy  of  which  Mill  complained.  The 
philosophy  of  which  he  was  the  distinguished  representa- 
tive and  exponent  was  ill-fitted  by  its  fundamental  con- 
ceptions for  grappling  effectively  with  the  new  views  of 
Nature  which  science  was  disclosing ;  it  could  not  help  in 
the  endeavour  to  find  necessary  unity  at  the  heart  of 
things.  In  this  sphere  Mill  was  hampered  by  his  theory 
of  knowledge,  which  he  inherited  from  Hume.  Accord- 
ing to  this  theory,  knowledge  originates  in  impressions 
made  upon  the  senses,  and  is  limited,  of  course,  by  the 
external  world.  Knowledge  in  this  view,  in  its  ulti- 
mate analysis  and  when  perfectly  organised,  will  consist 
of  the  classification  of  facts  and  the  arranging  of  them 
into  groups.  Are  these  groups  "held  together  by  any 
necessary  law?  Can  the  various  branches  of  knowledge 
be  traced  back  to  one  common  root?  By  the  nature  of 
his  philosophy  Mill  was  compelled  to  answer  this  ques- 
tion in  the  negative  as  follows :  ' '  There  exists  in  Nature 
a  number  of  permanent  causes,  which  have  subsisted  ever 
since  the  human  race  has  been  in  existence,  and  for  an 
indefinite  and  probably  an  enormous  length  of  time 
previous.  The  sun,  the  earth,  and  the  planets  with  their 
various  constituents — air,  water  and  the  distinguishable 
substances  whether  simple  or  compound  of  which  Nature 
is  made  up — are  such  permanent  causes.  Why  these  par- 
ticular natural  agents  existed  originally  and  no  others, 
or  why  they  are  arranged  in  such  a  manner  throughout 
space,  is  a  question  we  cannot  answer:  more  than  this 
we  can  discover  nothing  regular  in  the  distribution  it- 
self. We  can  reduce  it  to  no  uniformity,  to  no  law. ' '  In 
its  final  results  the  Experience  philosophy  of  Mill,  like 
the  Positivism  of  Comte,  lends  no  encouragement  to  the 
283 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

search  for  unity  which  the  new  dynamical  theory  of  Na- 
ture was  fostering. 

Spencer  saw  clearly  that,  on  the  lines  of  the  old  Ex- 
perience philosophy,  the  problem  was  insoluble.  He 
saw  that  if  the  mind  cannot  pass  beyond  particulars,  as 
Mill  said,  it  was  hopeless  to  search  for  universal  laws, 
hopeless  to  trace  existence  in  its  multifarious  aspects  to 
one  dynamic  process.  What  Spencer  did  was  to  start 
with  two  universal  intuitions,  which  cannot  be  proved, 
and  which  must  be  accepted  as  necessities  of  thought — 
belief  in  personal  identity,  and  belief  in  the  permanence 
of  the  constitution  of  things  which  we  call  Nature.  By 
starting  with  two  intuitive  beliefs — subjective  existence 
and  objective  existence — Spencer  escaped  the  sceptical 
conclusions  of  Hume  and  Mill. 

As  I  have  observed  in  a  review  of  Spencer's  philos- 
ophy: "  Accepting  as  the  data  of  philosophy,  subject 
and  object,  self  and  not-self,  Spencer  deals  with  the  gen- 
eral forms  under  which  the  not-self,  the  Cosmos,  mani- 
fests itself  to  the  self,  the  mind.  These  general  forms 
under  which  the  not-self,  the  cosmos,  manifests  itself  to 
the  self,  the  mind,  are  space,  time,  matter,  motion,  and 
force.  After  a  careful  analysis  of  these  forms  by  which 
all  thinking  is  conditioned,  he  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  space,  time,  matter  and  motion,  all  necessary  data  of 
intelligence,  are  built  up  or  abstracted  from  experiences 
of  force.  Force  persists.  When  we  say  that  force  persists, 
we  are  simply  saying  that  the  sum  total  of  matter  and 
motion,  by  which  force  manifests  itself  to  us,  can  neither 
be  increased  nor  diminished.  This,  like  personal 
identity,  is  an  ultimate  fact,  an  ultimate  belief,  which 
we  must  take  with  us  as  the  basis  of  all  reasoning;  if 
force  came  into  existence  and  went  out  of  existence, 
the  Universe  would  be  not  a  cosmos  but  a  chaos,  nay 
more,  reasoning  would  be  impossible.  Scientific  deduc- 
tions, as  well  as  abstract  reasoning,  would  be  impossible 
if  the  forces  of  Nature  did  not  persist.  Viewed  thus,  the 
Universe  is  one  fact,  the  varying  phenomena  being  but 
284 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

so  many   phases   of  the  redistribution  of  matter  and 
motion. ' ' 

Spencer  found  in  the  two  great  scientific  generalisa- 
tions— the  nebular  theory  and  the  conservation  of  energy 
— precisely  the  scientific  materials  which  were  necessary 
to  the  framing  of  his  philosophical  system.  Here  was 
clear  proof  that  the  Universe  was  not  machine-like  in 
construction,  but  was  the  outcome  of  a  dynamic  process. 
Starting  with  the  ultimate  fact  of  the  redistribution  of 
matter  and  motion,  Spencer  proceeds  to  trace  the  process 
by  which  the  Universe  evolves  from  its  primitive  nebulous 
form  to  -its  latest  state  of  complexity.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  Spencer,  in  dealing  with  matter,  did  not,  like  so 
many  of  his  contemporaries,  accept  the  atom  as  an  ulti- 
mate. When  he  wrote,  the  atom  was  treated  as  the  foun- 
dation stone,  so  to  speak,  of  the  Universe.  In  his  First 
Principles,  he  showed  that  matter,  under  philosophical 
analysis,  resolves  itself  into  a  form  of  energy — a  view 
which  the  discovery  of  radium  amply  confirms. 

From  the  cosmieal  side,  Spencer's  great  task  was 
trace  the  process  of  evolution.  For  convenience,  phe- 
nomena are  divisible  into  sections — astronomic,  geologic, 
biologic,  psychologic,  sociologic,  but  the  process  is  one, 
and  the  law  is  one.  In  those  spheres,  Spencer  has  illu- 
minated a  whole  world  of  facts,  and  by  his  magnificent 
powers  of  analysis  and  generalisation  has  raised  the  hu- 
man mind  to  higher  reaches  of  thought.  It  has  been 
finely  said  that  to  a  thinker  capable  of  comprehending 
it  from  a  single  point  of  view,  the  Universe  would  pre- 
sent a  single  fact,  one  all  comprehensive  truth.  Spen- 
cer's attempt  is  the  greatest  that  has  yet  been  made  to 
realise  this  ideal. 

Spencer  intended  his  system  to  be  a  philosophy  of  phe- 
nomenal existence,  but  at  the  outset  he  deemed  it  neces- 
sary to  deal  with  ontological  problems.  By  his  famous 
theory  of  the  Unknowable  he  involved  himself  in  con- 
troversies which  distracted  the  public  mind  and  drew 
attention  away  from  his  real  aim.  He  realised  that  in 
285 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

this  he  had  made  a  mistake.  He  was  in  his  later  days 
anxious  to  make  it  plain  that  his  system  was  quite  inde- 
pendent of  his  theory  of  the  Unknowable.  His  system,  he 
once  remarked  to  me,  should  be  judged  on  its  merits, 
apart  from  its  metaphysical  basis.1  Spencer's  mistake 
was  in  prefacing  his  First  Principles  with  a  discussion 
associated  with  the  philosophy  of  Hamilton  and  Mansel. 
The  conclusion  of  his  great  work  was  the  proper  place  to 
treat  of  its  philosophical  aspects,  when  he  would  have 
been  in  a  position  to  deal  with  ontological  problems  on 
modern  lines. 

Great  inconvenience  came  from  the  mixing  up  of  the 
scientific  and  the  metaphysical.  For  instance,  in  First 
Principles  Spencer  proceeds  on  the  assumption  that 
i'orce,  which  he  calls  a  form  of  the  unknowable,  explains 
all  phenomena,  living  as  well  as  non-living.  His  attempt 
to  correlate  living  and  non-living  forces,  and  embrace 
them  in  a  mechanical  formula  did  not  latterly  satisfy 
himself.  In  the  sixth  edition  of  his  First  Principles, 
revised  by  him  in  1900,  he  no  longer  believed  in  the 
transformation  of  motion  into  feeling,  but  only  in  a  con- 
stant ratio  between  the  two.  In  dealing  with  life  the 
same  change  of  view  is  noticeable.  In  the  last  edition 
of  the  Principles  of  Biology  the  admission  is  made  that 
' '  life  in  its  essence  cannot  be  conceived  in  physico-chemi- 
cal terms."  The  effect  of  these  admissions  is  to  make 
the  "  Synthetic  Philosophy  "  dualistic  rather  than  mo- 
nistic. From  a  scientific  point  of  view  these  admissions 
are  of  no  moment,  because,  as  the  psychical  only  mani- 
fests through  the  physical,  it  is  quite  legitimate  to  use 
mechanical  terminology  in  dealing  with  phenomena. 
Both  in  biology  and  psychology  the  Spencerian  formula 
has  been  exceedingly  fruitful.  In  regard  to  the  former 
we  have  the  testimony  of  a  competent  authority,  Pro- 
fessor Arthur  Thomson,  the  Scottish  biologist,  who  de- 
scribes the  Principles  of  Biology  as  an  epoch-making 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xv.,  p.  268;  chap,  xviii.,  p.  336;  vol.,  ii., 
chap,  xxviii.,  p.  213. 

286 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

work.  "  Even  as  a  balance  sheet  of  the  facts  of  life  the 
book  is  a  biological  classic ;  consciously  or  unconsciously 
we  are  all  standing  on  his  shoulders."  Distinguished 
scientists  on  the  Continent  have  given  like  testimony  to 
Spencer's  labours  in  the  region  of  biology. 

In  psychology  Spencer's  work  was  also  epoch-making. 
His  book  proved  to  be  the  forerunner  of  a  new  method 
in  the  study  of  brain  and  nerve  evolution  and  dissolu- 
tion. No  greater  evidence  of  the  value  of  Spencer's 
work  in  this  department  can  be  had  than  the  testimony 
of  distinguished  medical  specialists  in  brain  and  nerve 
disorders.  It  is  claimed  for  Spencer  that  in  neurology, 
psychology,  and  pathology,  he  has  discovered  the  funda- 
mental principles,  and  that  whatever  systems  are  erected 
in  these  sciences  must  be  erected  on  the  foundations 
he  has  laid.  In  Spencer's  hands  psychology,  from  be- 
ing a  sterile  science  confined  to  academic  circles,  has 
been  converted  into  a  valuable  instrument  of  scientific 
research. 

To  the  ethical,  sociological,  and  political  sciences, 
Spencer  applied  his  evolution  formula  with  marked 
originality.  To  the  utilitarianism  of  Bentham  and  Mill 
he  has  given  something  like  a  scientific  foundation,  while 
political  philosophy,  which  before  his  day  was  usually 
associated  with  forms  of  government,  has  now  its  proper  _ 
place  in  sociological  evolution.  As  has  been  well  said: 
"  Spencer,  exchanging  the  point  of  view  from  the  me- 
chanical to  the  biological,  originated  quite  a  new  train 
of  political  thinking.  An  organised  society  is  subject  to 
the  law  of  growth.  It  has  an  economic  root,  and  all 
political  structures  as  well  as  ethical  ideals  are  deter- 
mined, not  from  the  outside  by  legislation,  but  by  the 
economic  conditions  at  each  particular  stage.  All  stu- 
dents  of  social  evolution  are  his  debtors. ' '  ^ 

What  will  be  the  verdict  of  history  upon  Herbert 
Spencer?     It  will  surely  be  that  he  belonged  to  the^" 
highly  gifted  race  of  thinkers  who,  by  the  boldness  of 
their  generalisations  and  their  commanding  outlook  upon 
287 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

life  and  thought,  have  opened  out  to  humanity  wider 
intellectual  vistas. 

The  warmth  and  catholicity  of  the  tributes  paid  to* 
the  remarkable  force  of  Spencer's  intellect,  the  lofty 
simplicity  of  his  character,  the  grandeur  of  his  aims,  and 
the  heroic  devotion  which  had  sustained  him  throughout 
a  long  life,  bore  eloquent  testimony  to  the  extraordinary 
impression  he  had  made  on  the  men  of  his  day  and  gen- 
eration. He  had  reached  the  front  rank  among  thinkers. 
But,  it  has  been  asked,  will  he  hold  this  place  in  the 
estimation  of  future  generations?  Do  these  tokens 
of  appreciation  warrant  the  assumption  that  the  impres- 
sion will  be  enduring — that  there  will  be  a  permanent 
widening  and  clearing  of  the  intellectual  horizon,  and 
such  a  purifying  and  strengthening  of  character  as  will 
stand  the  test  of  time  ?  This  question  is  more  easily  put 
than  answered ;  but  an  attempt  to  answer  it  is  desirable, 
inasmuch  as  the  raising  of  it,  besides  carrying  with  it  a 
suggestion  of  belittling  Spencer  and  his  achievements, 
implies  that  an  affirmative  answer  may  be  given  to  the 
general  question — Is  it  possible  for  any  one  to  frame  a 
theory  of  things  that  shall  be  final? 

The  durability  of  a  thinker's  work  is  seldom  dis- 
cussed with  profit:  owing  partly  to  the  uncertainty  at- 
taching to  forecasts  of  events  like  opinions  and  impulses, 
to  the  formation  of  which  so  many  subtle  elements  con- 
tribute ;  and  partly  to  the  absence  of  a  clear  idea  of  the 
question  raised.  Finality,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word, 
may  at  once  be  put  aside.  Scientific  theories  cannot  be 
final,  inasmuch  as  the  revelations  of  Nature  are  not  final. 
A  theory  holds  its  own  so  long  as,  and  only  so  long  as, 
it  harmonises  better  than  any  other  with  ascertained 
288 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

facts.  In  any  other  sense  than  this,  finality  was  not 
claimed  by  Spencer,  nor  could  it  have  been  claimed  by 
him  consistently  with  his  fundamental  doctrine.  The 
gradual  development  of  his  own  conceptions  was  a  strik- 
ing exemplification  of  evolution.  "  It  may  be,"  says 
Rev.  J.  W.  Chadwick,  of  Brooklyn,  "  that  there  are  par- 
ticulars of  Spencer's  system  that  will  require  serious 
modification.  If  there  are  not,  it  will  be  an  exception  to 
its  central  law.  In  Spencer's  world  there  are  no  finali- 
ties, and  for  him  to  imagine  his  own  system  of  philosophy 
as  one  would  be  impossible.^— 6hange,  he  held,  is  life, 
absence  of  change,  death.  He  did  not,  as  was  implied 
by  one  of  the  newspaper  obituary  notices,  so  far  forget 
himself  as  to  conceive  "  it  possible  that  he  was  saying 
the  last  word  in  Philosophy."  He  would  have  admitted 
that  many  of  his  generalisations  would  "  have  to  give 
way  before  the  tests  of  future  experience  and  research  ' ' ; 
'  that  many  of  his  f  ormulas  were  likely  to  ' '  perish,  not  by 
being  even  refuted,  but  because  they  cease  to  be  instruct- 
ive." A  theory,  though  professing  to  be  the  most  com- 
plete generalisation  of  the  on-goings  of  the  universe  as 
known  in  the  second  and  third  quarters  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, does  not  on  that  account  claim  to  be  installed  as 
the  accepted  scheme  of  things  for  all  time,  or  for  even 
the  next  generation.  To  suppose  that  Spencer,  who  had""* 
traced  the  genesis  and  growth  of  science  in  the  past,  as- 
sumed that  there  would  be  no  growth  in  the  future, 
would  be  to  treat  him  as  one  of  the  most  short-sighted, 
instead  of  one  of  the  most  far-seeing  thinkers.  Viewed 
in  this  light,  Spencer's  work  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
the  discoveries,  marvellous  in  number  and  importance, 
made  in  recent  years.  Even  if  evolution  had  now  to  be 
289 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

consigned  to  the  scrap-heap,  where  lie  so  many  outworn 
theories,  that  would  not  affect  its  claim  to  have  been  the 
most  complete  generalisation  of  knowledge  at  the  time  he 
wrote.  But,  though  there  may  be  ambiguities  of  state- 
ment, oversights  in  details,  and  mistakes  in  application, 
there  are  at  present  no  indications  of  the  doctrine  as  a 
whole  being  superseded.  Even  the  phenomena  of 
radium,  revolutionising  previous  conceptions  as  to  the 
constitution  of  matter,  do  not  overthrow  the  doctrine 
of  evolution.  Some  there  are,  indeed,  who  think  with  DrS 
Saleeby  that  these  phenomena  "  answer  the  Spencerian 
definition  of  evolution  as  if  it  had  been  framed  to  ex- 
plain them."  Others  are  of  opinion  that  the  formula  of 
evolution  will  not  fit  the  new  discoveries  so  perfectly  as 
this — that  it  will  require  a  little  letting  out  here  or  a 
little  taking  in  there.  When  one  remembers  how  the  for- 
mula evolved  in  Spencer's  mind  under  the  influence  of 
increasing  knowledge,  one  will  be  prepared  for  such  fur- 
ther modifications  as  fresh  discoveries  may  necessitate. 
But  whatever  discoveries — far  surpassing  those  of  radio- 
activity— lie  in  the  womb  of  time,  they  will  not  affect  the 
contention  that  Spencer's  synthesis  of  knowledge  was  the 
inost  comprehensive  and  complete — was  final,  not  as  fore- 
'elosing  his  scheme  of  the  Universe  against  future  ad- 
vances of  knowledge,  but  as  the  fullest  and  grandest 
generalisation  of  the  knowledge  of  his  day.  It  was  a 
contribution  towards  a  settlement,  not  a  closing  of  the 
account.  In  this  sense,  his  permanent  place  is  assured 
for  all  time.  In  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the  human 
mind,  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  will  be  an  enduring 
land-mark.  Men's  ways  of  looking  at  things  will  never 
be  what  they  would  have  been  had  he  not  written. 
290 


PLACE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THOUGHT 

Henceforth  it  will  be  "  impossible  thoroughly  to  pursue 
any  kind  of  enquiry  without  being  confronted  by  his 
ideas."  "  No  man  of  the  present  time,"  said  Rev.  J. 
Minot  Savage,  of  Boston,  the  Sunday  after  Spencer's 
death,  "  can  discuss  any  one  of  the  great  problems  of 
the  world  .  .  .  without  dealing  with  Herbert  Spencer. 
He  has  got  to  agree  with  him  or  fight  him:  he  cannot 
ignore  him. ' '  What  influence  more  permanent  than  this 
could  any  man  have  ? *• 

In  addition  to  his  rare  gifts  for  co-ordinating  and  sys- 
tematising  the  scientific  conceptions  of  his  day,  Spencer 
possessed  an  unrivalled  power  of  stimulating  and  direct- 
ing others.    To  lead  men  to  think  for  themselves — to  sug-v  / 
gest  paths  of  inquiry  at  the  end  of  which  may  lie  a  great    ' 
truth — to  direct  a  searchlight  on  the  road  to  be  traversed 
— surely  these  are  attributes  of  the  highest  power.     Sir 
Andrew  Clark_was  wont  to  say  that  when  feeling  intel- 
^Tecfually  limp  he  was  in  the  habit  of  turning  to  Spencer's 
writings,  the  bracing  effect  of  which  he  seldom  failed  to  / 
experience.     The  suggestiveness  of  his  ideas  was  freely! 
acknowledged    in    his    lifetime.      From    the    American  y 
ranch,  the  Australian  bush,  and  the  South  African  veldt   « 
— from  those  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships — from 
countrymen  and  from  foreigners — from  men  and  women 
in  humble  walks  of  life  as  well  as  from  those  in  exalted 
station — came    to    him    grateful    acknowledgments    of 
stimulus  and  guidance  received  from  his  writings.    And 
who  can  tell  the  number  of  those  who  unconsciously  by 
his  thoughts  have  had  their  own  thoughts  made  broader 
and  clearer,  and  their  lives  turned  into  the  path  of  new 
endeavour  ? 

1  Compare  Lord  Courtney's  address,  chap,  xxviii.,  p.  231. 
291 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

We  are  as  yet  too  near  him  to  form  a  true  estimate 
of  his  greatness.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
details  of  his  personality  obscure  the  grandeur  of  its 
outlines — that  the  superficial  and  immediate  effects  of  his 
work  prevent  us  from  estimating  its  deep  and  remote 
effects.  Partly,  it  is  the  result  of  the  very  success  of 
his  teaching,  which,  having  permeated  our  thought  and 
speech,  gives  the  impression  that  many  of  his  utterances 
are  platitudes,  truisms,  common-places.  His  ideas  and 
his  ways  of  looking  at  things  have  become  part  of  the  in- 
tellectual atmosphere  we  breathe — have  become  em- 
bedded in  the  language  we  speak.  The  value  of  his 
teaching  will  be  rightly  appreciated  only  by  future  gen- 
erations. What  Professor  Theodor  Gomperz  says  of 
Plato,  may  be  said  of  Spencer: — 

An  intellect  of  the  first  order,  having  found  and 
selected  the  elements  of  a  world-theory,  will  combine  and 
develop  them  in  such  manner  as  may  best  accord  with 
its  own  powerful  and  strongly  marked  individuality, 
and,  for  this  very  reason,  there  will  be  small  prospect  of 
gaining  the  adherence,  within  a  short  interval,  of  any 
very  extensive  section  of  society.  At  the  same  time,  such 
an  intellect,  out  of  the  abundance  of  its  wealth,  will 
exert  an  influence  upon  many  later  generations,  with 
which  it  will  continually  present  new  points  of  contact, 
and  thus  upon  the  intellectual  life  of  mankind  at  large.1 

To  posterity  Spencer's  reputation  as  a  thinker  may 
with  confidence  be  left. 

1  Theodor  Gomperz's  Greek  Thinkers  (translated  by  G.  G. 
Berry),  ii.,  245. 


292 


APPENDICES 


APPENDICES 

NOTE. — The  two  following  Appendices  [A  and  B] 
being  written  in  the  first  person,  apparently  belong  to 
the  Autobiography,  and  in  a  sense  do  so.  The  explana- 
tion of  their  appearance  here  is  that  the  Autobiography 
was  finished  and  stereotyped  ten  years  before  the  first 
of  them  was  written,  and  that  now  to  incorporate  them 
would  involve  a  re-arrangement  of  the  plates,  which 
would  be  troublesome  and  costly.  Hence  I  have  thought 
it  best  to  leave  them  to  be  used  by  my  biographer.  The 
use  of  the  first  person  instead  of  the  third  will,  after 
this  explanation,  cause  no  misapprehension. 

[March,  1903.]  H.  S. 


APPENDIX  A 
PHYSICAL  TRAITS  AND  SOME  SEQUENCES1 

YEARS  ago  I  met  with  the  remark  that  biographers 
do  not  adequately  describe  the  physical  traits  of  the  men 
whose  lives  they  write.  Something  is  usually  said  about 
external  appearance;  but  little  or  nothing  is  said  about 
constitution.  Both  sets  of  characters  should  have  their 
places,  since  both  are  factors  in  a  man's  career.  Recogni- 
tion of  this  truth  has  decided  me  to  set  down  such 
memoranda  concerning  my  physical  nature  as  seem  sig- 
nificant. 

Already  in  the  Autobiography  I  have  named  the  fact 
that  my  ultimate  height  was  5  feet  10  inches:  and  I 
think  I  have  remarked  that  during  boyhood  I  was  unusu- 
ally long-legged.  Probably  my  ability  to  outrun  my 
school-fellows  was  due  to  this  trait  of  structure.  .  .  . 
On  approaching  manhood  a  much  greater  rate  of  growth, 
reaching  three  inches  a  year,  was,  I  suppose,  due  to  the 
more  rapid  development  of  the  trunk.  Eventually  the 
proportions  were  not  far  from  the  normal,  though  I 
think  the  chest  was  not  so  large  as  was  needed  for  a 
complete  organic  balance.  Like  my  father  and  mother, 
and  like  all  my  grandparents,  I  was  *'  spare,"  not  to  say 
thin.  Indeed,  the  fact  that  throughout  adult  life  my 
weight  was  usually  a  little  over  10  stone  implies  this 
thinness,  for  the  normal  weight  for  a  man  of  5  feet  10 
inches  is  something  like  a  stone  greater.  I  should  add 
that  my  limbs  when  fully  developed  were  somewhat 
slighter  than  usual,  my  hands  especially  being  small — 
too  small  for  a  man. 

1  Written  in  the  autumn  of  1902. 
295 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

A  life's  experience  has  proved  my  constitutional 
strength  to  have  been  good  if  not  great.  There  have 
come  round  to  me  reports  respecting  my  feebleness  in 
infancy — feebleness  said  to  have  been  such  that  it  was 
doubtful  whether  I  should  be  reared.  I  know  no  war- 
rant for  such  reports.  It  is  true  that  my  father  would 
not  have  my  brain  taxed  by  early  lessons;  but  beyond 
this  interdict  I  can  remember  no  evidence.  I  was  al- 
lowed to  run  wild  and  was  freer  from  children's  disor- 
ders than  is  usual. 

Something  should  be  said  respecting  complexion.  My 
hair  was  brown,  leaning  rather  towards  a  darker  than  a 
lighter  shade.  A  moderate  amount  of  colour  in  the 
cheeks  was  characteristic.  I  had  neither  that  parchment- 
complexion  which  goes  along  with  the  strongest  consti- 
tutions (contrary  to  common  notions)  nor  that  high 
colour  which  is  popularly  thought  a  sign  of  abounding 
health.  And  here  seems  the  fittest  place  to  remark  that 
during  middle  and  later  life  I  changed  very  little.  In 
advanced  years  the  usual  remark  was  that  I  looked  ten 
years  younger  than  I  actually  was.  There  were,  I  think, 
three  causes  for  this.  It  was  said  of  me,  after  the  publi- 
cation of  Social  Statics,  that  my  forehead  did  not  bear 
any  of  those  lines  of  thought  which  were  to  be  expected. 
The  absence  of  such  lines  has  remained  a  trait  down  al- 
most to  the  present  time.  As  before  explained,  my 
thinking  has  not  been  forced  but  spontaneous ;  and,  as  a 
consequence,  the  face  has  not  been  drawn  into  furrows 
expressing  strenuous  mental  action.  A  second  cause  is, 
I  believe,  that  as  my  strong  eyes  never  shrank  from  any 
light  however  bright,  there  was  not  induced  that  wrin- 
kling up  of  the  corners  of  the  eyes  which  reflex  efforts  to 
shut  off  part  of  the  light  cause ;  and,  consequently,  there 
has  not  been  so  marked  a  production  of  "  crow's  feet." 
And  then,  in  the  third  place,  I  have  retained  up  to  the 
present  time  all  my  teeth.  Where  the  crowns  have  de- 
cayed the  roots  have  been  left,  and  there  has  not  been 
produced  the  usual  sinking  in  of  the  cheeks  from  lack 
296 


PHYSICAL  TRAITS  AND  SOME  SEQUENCES 

of  the  support  which  the  gums  normally  yield.  This  has 
enabled  the  face  to  retain  its  contour  in  a  much  greater 
degree  than  usual. 

Until  the  time  of  my  nervous  breakdown,  I  had  good 
health.  My  constitution  appears  to  have  been  not 
strong  in  the  sense  of  possessing  overflowing  vigour,  but 
strong  in  the  sense  of  having  a  good  balance.  All 
through  life,  in  late  days  as  in  early  days,  my  state  of 
body  and  mind  has  been  equable.  There  have  never  been 
any  bursts  of  high  spirits  and  times  of  depression;  but 
there  has  ever  been  a  flow  of  energy  moderate  in  amount, 
but  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  life. 

One  consequence  has  been  that  I  have  preserved  down 
to  late  life  a  love  of  amusements  of  all  kinds.  I  never 
fell  into  that  state  of  indifference  which  characterises 
many.  Concerts  and  theatres  continued  to  be  attractions 
until  my  broken  health  forbade  attending  them;  a  good 
drama  being  to  the  last,  as  at  first,  one  of  the  greatest 
pleasures  which  life  yields.  Certain  sports,  too,  as  salmon 
and  sea-trout  fishing,  retained  their  attraction  until 
my  strength  failed.  To  friends  who  have  lost  liking  for 
other  pursuits  than  work,  I  have  often  insisted  that  it  is 
a  mistake,  even  from  a  business  point  of  view,  to  give 
up  amusements;  since,  when  disturbance  of  health  has 
made  a  holiday  imperative,  there  remains  no  means  of 
passing  the  time  with  satisfaction.  "  Be  a  boy  as  long 
as  you  can,"  was  the  maxim  which  I  reiterated.  Games, 
too,  I  played  as  long  as  physical  powers  allowed.  Above 
all  I  continued  to  enjoy  the  country;  my  sojourn  in 
which  every  summer  was  looked  forward  to  as  the  great 
gratification  of  the  year.  How  fully  I  entered  into  its 
concomitant  pleasures  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
I  went  picnicking  when  over  eighty. 

Being  moderate  in  amount,  my  flow  of  energy  was 
never  such  as  prompted  needless  activities.  There  are 
men  whose  fulness  of  life  necessitates  some  kind  of  ac- 
tion— purposeless  action,  if  no  other.  This  was  never 
so  with  me.  Contrariwise,  I  tended  always  to  be  an  idler. 
297 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Action  resulted  only  under  the  prompting  of  a  much- 
desired  end,  and  even  then  it  was  with  some  reluctance 
that  I  worked  at  things  needful  for  achieving  the  end. 

I  emphasise  this  trait  since  it  is  so  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  trait  commonly  ascribed  to  me.  On  looking  at 
the  series  of  my  books,  and  at  the  amount  of  material 
brought  together  in  them,  as  well  as  the  thinking  shown, 
it  appears  to  be  a  necessary  implication  that  I  have 
been  a  hard  worker.  The  inference  is  quite  wrong,  how- 
ever. In  the  first  place,  that  which  I  have  done  has  been 
done  only  under  pressure  of  a  great  object;  and  even 
under  that  pressure  it  has  been  done  with  a  very  moder- 
ate activity.  It  is  true  that  activity  in  thinking  was  con- 
stant; and  it  was  partly  the  pleasure  of  thinking  (which 
in  boyhood  took  the  form  of  "  castle-building,"  and  in 
later  life  higher  forms)  which  put  a  constant  check  upon 
action.  Probably  this  trait  did  much  towards  shaping 
my  career.  Had  I  been  energetic  there  would  not  have 
arisen  those  quiet  contemplations,  carried  on  irregularly 
and  at  first  without  definite  aims,  which  led  to  the  work 
I  have  done. 

One  of  the  traits  of  a  constitution  which,  though  not 
vigorous,  was  organically  good,  appears  to  have  been  a 
well-finished  development  of  the  structures  which  arise 
out  of  the  dermal  system.  I  was  thirty-two  before  I  had 
any  sign  of  decay  of  teeth.  I  never  had  a  tooth  taken 
out  or  stopped.  Of  the  eyes,  which  are  also  dermal 
structures,  the  like  may  be  said.  They  have  all  through 
life  remained  strong.  Down  even  to  my  present  age 
(eighty-two)  I  read  without  spectacles;  sometimes  put- 
ting on  a  pair,  but  finding  the  inconvenience  such  that, 
on  the  whole,  I  prefer  to  do  without  them.  I  may  add 
that  I  have,  until  quite  recently,  rejoiced  in  a  strong 
light.  That  dislike  to  a  glare  which  many  people  betray, 
even  in  their  early  years,  I  have  rarely  if  ever  felt.  The 
like  holds  with  the  ears.  Those  around  me  say  that  my 
hearing  is  perfect.  Is  there  any  significance  in  this  per- 
fection and  long  endurance  of  teeth,  eyes,  and  ears,  all  of 
298 


PHYSICAL  TRAITS  AND  SOME  SEQUENCES 

them  developed  from  the  dermal  layer  ?  The  implication 
seems  to  be  that  in  the  process  of  development  there  was 
no  failure  of  nutrition  at  the  periphery. 

Part  of  my  motive  for  setting  down  the  foregoing 
facts  has  been  that  of  introducing  certain  incidents  and 
the  effects  they  probably  had  on  my  constitution  and 
career. 

First  of  all  there  is  the  achievement  in  walking  when 
thirteen,  as  narrated  in  my  Autobiography  [i.,  106].  I 
have  I  think  expressed  the  belief  that,  notwithstanding 
the  passage  through  this  constitutional  strain  without 
apparent  damage,  yet  some  damage  was  done.  That 
such  a  long-continued  exertion  was  possible  at  that  age 
is  strange;  and  it  was,  I  think,  impossible  that  it  could 
have  been  gone  through  without  leaving  certain  imper- 
fect developments  of  structure. 

[After  the  visit  to  Switzerland]  came  the  breakdown 
in  health  caused  by  writing  the  Principles  of  Psychology. 
If,  as  above  inferred,  the  vascular  system  at  large,  and 
more  especially  its  central  organ,  had  been  injured,  it 
seems  an  implication  that  the  collapse  which  occurred 
under  this  moderate  stress  of  work  would  not  otherwise 
have  taken  place.  From  that  time  onwards  throughout 
the  rest  of  my  life  I  have  never  had  a  sound  night.  Al- 
ways my  sleep,  very  inadequate  in  quantity,  has  been  a 
succession  of  bits:  not  the  broken  sleep  resulting  from 
an  occasional  turning  over  while  half  awake,  but  having 
frequent  breaks  with  no  sense  of  sleepiness,  and  long 
intervals  with  no  sleep  at  all.  Always  I  dropped  off 
without  preliminary  sense  that  I  was  about  to  do  so,  and 
always  when  I  woke  I  was  broad  awake.  Only  during 
recent  years  (say  after  seventy-five)  have  I  approached 
the  normal  state,  in  so  far  as  that  is  indicated  by  feeling 
sleepy  before  going  to  sleep  and  after  waking. 

I  have  said  that  for  eighteen  months  I  did  nothing. 
Even  reading  a  column  of  a  newspaper  brought  on  a 
sensation  of  fulness  in  the  head ;  and  when,  in  the  winter 
299 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

of  1856-7,  I  at  length  undertook  to  write  the  article  on 
' '  Progress :  its  Law  and  Cause, ' '  the  effort  entailed  was 
very  trying.  Still  the  result  was  beneficial,  and  from 
that  time  onwards,  little  by  little,  I  resumed  work. 

It  seems  strange  that  with  this  nervous  disability,  ac- 
companied by  nights  of  three,  four,  or  five  hours  sleep 
made  up  of  many  parts,  I  should  have  maintained  what 
seemed  to  be  good  health.  There  was  no  failure  of  mus- 
cular strength.  My  usual  practice  was  to  run  up  three 
flights  of  stairs  two  steps  at  a  time,  and  I  remember 
noting  that  this  habit  remained  easy  to  me  on  my 
sixtieth  birthday.  The  essential  cause  was  that  my  di- 
gestion remained  good.  Throughout  preceding  life  I  had 
never  been  to  any  extent  troubled  by  dyspepsia,  and  this 
eupeptic  state  continued  onwards  after  my  break-down. 
The  first  indication  of  any  lack  of  full  digestive  power 
was  that,  when  forty,  I  found  veal  at  a  late  dinner  was 
no  longer  desirable.  From  that  time  onwards  there  has 
been  no  kind  of  food  which  I  have  avoided  on  the 
ground  of  indigestibility ;  my  diet  even  down  to  this  late 
period  including  dishes  which  many  people  in  middle 
life  would  shrink  from.  Of  course  the  ability  to  obtain 
a  good  supply  of  blood  has  gone  far  towards  compensat- 
ing for  the  evils  entailed  by  bad  nights.  Repair  of  the 
tissues  goes  on  during  waking  hours  as  well  as  during 
sleep ;  and  sleep  serves  simply  to  give  opportunity  for 
making  up  arrears  of  repair  and,  especially,  to  give 
extra  opportunity  for  repair  to  the  heart.  Hence  it 
results  that  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  sleep 
with  good  blood  well  circulated  suffices — suffices  better 
than  a  long  sleep  with  a  slow  circulation  and  poor 
blood. 

A  partial  ability  to  continue  my  work  was  the  conse- 
quence. All  through  the  period  during  which  the  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy  was  in  hand,  there  was  never  any  lack 
of  power  to  think,  and  never  any  reluctance  to  think. 
Though  my  working  time  was  so  limited  in  duration  (be- 
ing checked  by  the  rise  of  sensations  in  the  head  and  a 
300 


PHYSICAL  TRAITS  AND  SOME  SEQUENCES 

consciousness  that  mischief  would  result  from  persever- 
ance) yet  during  this  abridged  period  the  process  of 
dictating  was  in  no  degree  restrained  by  a  sense  of 
effort  or  of  disinclination ;  and  had  I  not  known  that  dis- 
aster would  follow  I  should  have  been  ready  to  resume  in 
the  afternoon.  The  constitution  had  adjusted  itself  to 
the  abnormal  conditions,  and  the  functions  of  all  kinds 
went  on  within  the  prescribed  bounds  without  apparent 
strain. 

It  is  a  question  of  some  interest  whether  the  state  of 
things  was  injurious  or  otherwise  to  my  work.  Of  course 
had  I  not  lived  beyond  the  usual  age,  part  of  it  would 
have  remained  undone;  but  having  lived  long  enough  to 
complete  it  (or  all  but  a  non-essential  part  of  it),  it  seems 
possible  that  the  slow  rate  of  progress,  giving  oppor- 
tunity for  more  quiet  thinking  than  there  would  have 
been  had  I  worked  at  the  ordinary  rate,  was  beneficial. 

Thus  far  the  accounts  of  my  physical  nature  and  of 
the  incidents  which  profoundly  affected  it,  have  con- 
cerned the  part  of  my  life  which  extended  to  1882.  Then 
there  came  an  incident,  further  illustrating  the  rash- 
ness I  have  described  and  leaving  no  benefit  but  only 
enormous  evil.  I  refer  to  the  initiation  of  the  Anti- 
Aggression  League,  and  the  effects  produced  on  my 
health. 

Up  to  that  time  I  had  abided  by  my  resolution  not  to 
enter  into  any  public  activity ;  knowing  that  my  state  of 
brain  was  one  which  forbade  any  stress.  But  now  the 
interest  I  felt  in  resisting  our  filibustering  actions  was 
such  as  to  over-ride  my  resolution.  Not  that  I  thought 
of  joining  in  a  continued  agitation.  I  thought  that  after 
the  League  had  been  set  afloat  I  might  retire,  and  assist 
only  by  name  and  money. 

And  now  there  began  to  be  shown  in  more  manifest 
ways  the  cardiac  damage,  and  damage  to  the  spinal  cord, 
which  had  been  left  by  my  boyish  exploit.  I  had  to 
diminish  my  work,  and  year  by  year  there  came  a 
diminution  of  the  distance  which  I  could  walk  without 
301 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

damage.  Every  now  and  then,  with  my  constitutional 
imprudence,  I  exceeded  the  limit  of  work  or  exercise, 
and  thereafter  made  both  of  them  smaller,  until,  in  1886, 
came  the  final  breakdown.  Thereafter  for  some  years  I 
was  obliged  to  desist  from  the  Synthetic  Philosophy.  .  .  . 

Having  returned  to  a  higher  level  of  health  I  re- 
sumed writing  the  Philosophy,  of  which  more  than  two 
volumes  were  still  [in  1888]  unwritten.  Ensuing  years 
witnessed  the  same  general  course  of  life — improvements 
for  a  time,  relapses  consequent  on  exceeding  the  amount 
of  exertion  bodily  or  mental  which  my  state  allowed,  and 
then  long  periods  during  which  very  little  or  nothing 
could  be  done.  The  variations  were  great.  From  1890 
to  1896  there  were  times  during  which  I  was  able  to  dic- 
tate a  considerable  amount  each  morning;  to  walk  up 
and  down-stairs;  to  sit  at  table  to  meals  (except  break- 
fast, which  I  had  taken  in  bed  since  1886)  ;  to  drive  to 
the  Athenaeum;  and,  when  up  to  high- water-mark,  to 
play  a  game  of  billiards  there.  But  always  after  a  while 
some  adverse  incident — a  little  too  much  exertion,  or  a 
little  too  much  talk,  or  a  little  too  much  work — brought 
me  down  again.  And  now,  since  the  completion  of 
the  Synthetic  Philosophy,  the  low  level  has  become 
settled. 

During  these  later  years,  when  capable  of  any  work, 
my  dictation  (according  to  Mr.  Troughton)  has 
amounted  sometimes  to  two  periods  of  ten  minutes  each 
during  the  morning,  and  sometimes  to  three.  Reading 
for  more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time  is  mischievous, 
and  listening  to  reading  has  to  be  restricted  to  frag- 
ments. It  has  been  so  even  with  music.  Even  so  simple 
a  thing  as  looking  at  illustrations  in  monthly  magazines 
is  too  much  for  me  unless  taken  in  portions.  Sometimes 
things  have  considerably  improved,  as  at  Bepton,  in 
1900,  when  I  could  walk  about  the  garden  a  little;  while 
at  other  times,  as  in  the  spring  of  1901  and  again  during 
the  present  autumn  (1902)  I  have  been  mainly  confined 
to  bed,  even  the  extra  effort  entailed  by  reclining  on  a 
302 


PHYSICAL  TKAITS  AND  SOME  SEQUENCES 

sofa  being  too  much.  To  all  appearance  this  state  of 
things  will  become  more  pronounced,  and  infirmities  of 
other  kinds,  which  have  during  these  last  years  added 
to  my  troubles,  will  make  such  part  of  my  life  as  re- 
mains still  more  to  be  dreaded. 


APPENDIX   B 

NOTE. — When  there  occurred  to  me  the  thought  of 
writing  a  brief  intellectual  history  of  myself  I  hesitated 
for  some  time :  doubting  whether  it  would  be  of  any  serv- 
ice. Now  that  it  has  been  completed,  however,  I  am 
glad  that  I  undertook  it.  Placing  the  facts  in  order  of 
genesis  has  had  the  effect  of  revealing  to  me  some  signifi- 
cant connexions  of  ideas  I  was  previously  unconscious 
of;  and  I  infer  that,  if  to  me  the  narrative  has  yielded 
information,  it  is  likely  to  yield  still  more  to  others.  As 
elucidating  the  natural  evolution  of  a  theory,  such  in- 
formation may  not  be  without  its  use. 

At  the  same  time  some  aid  may  be  given  to  those  who 
have  not  yet  made  acquaintance  with  my  books.  I  would 
suggest  that  for  such  the  best  course  will  be  to  read  first 
a  number  of  the  Essays,  beginning  with  the  more  popu- 
lar ;  then  to  read  the  little  book  on  Education;  then  The 
Study  of  Sociology;  and  then  the  pages  which  here  fol- 
low. A  sketch  plan  of  an  unexplored  region  is  always 
convenient  for  guidance,  and  this  "  Filiation  of  Ideas  " 
may  serve  as  a  sketch  plan  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy. 

February,  1899. 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS1 

A  COMPLETE  biography  should  give  an  account  not 
only  of  a  man 's  career  and  conduct  but  also  of  his  mental 
development,  emotional  and  intellectual,  and  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  that  development.  Something  is  not  unfre- 

1  The  footnotes  within  square  brackets  have  been  inserted 
mainly  to  assist  reference  to  the  Life  and  Letters. 

304 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

quently  done  towards  delineating  the  evolution  of  char- 
acter, but  not  much  is  done  towards  intellectual  history, 
explaining  the  genesis  of  ideas  and  the  elaborations  of 
them.  Such  a  history  cannot  to  much  purpose  be  given 
by  any  one  but  the  man  himself,  and  it  has  not  commonly 
happened  that  the  man  himself  has  thought  of  giving  it. 
I  have  already,  in  the  Autobiography,  indicated  stages 
of  thought,  and  shown  the  origins  of  certain  leading 
ideas;  but  I  have  done  this  only  in  a  fragmentary  way, 
and  much  of  the  detail  required  to  make  the  account 
coherent  has  been  unmentioned.  Then,  beyond  the  fact 
that  these  indications  do  not  form  a  continuous  whole 
there  is  the  fact  that  they  are  limited  to  the  first  half  of 
my  life.  Hence  the  decision  to  narrate  in  full,  so  far 
as  is  possible,  the  successive  steps,  and  also  to  describe 
the  peculiarities  of  constitution,  culture,  and  circum- 
stance, which  have  been  influential.  One  significant  re- 
sult will,  I  believe,  be  that  of  showing  how  large  a  part 
emotional  nature  plays  in  determining  the  intellectual 
activities,  and  how  it  enters  as  an  important  factor  into 
the  resulting  convictions. 

The  events  of  childhood  and  boyhood,  narrated  else- 
where, indicate  to  how  small  an  extent  authority  swayed 
me.  The  disobedience,  so  perpetually  complained  of, 
was  the  correlative  of  irreverence  for  governing  agencies. 
This  natural  trait  operated  throughout  life,  tending  to 
make  me  pay  little  attention  to  the  established  opinion 
on  any  matter  which  came  up  for  judgment,  and  tending 
to  leave  me  perfectly  free  to  inquire  without  restraint. 

The  nature  thus  displayed  was  rather  strengthened 
than  otherwise  by  my  father's  habit  of  speculating  about 
causes,  and  appealing  to  my  judgment  with  the  view  of 
exercising  my  powers  of  thinking.  By  occasional  ques- 
tions of  this  kind  he  strengthened  that  self-asserting 
nature  of  which  he  had  at  other  times  reason  to  com- 
plain, but  he  did  not  apparently  perceive  this.  Mean- 
while he  cultivated  a  consciousness  of  Cause— made  the 
305 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

thought  of  Cause'  a  familiar  one.  The  discovery  of  cause 
is  through  analysis — the  pulling  to  pieces  phenomena 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  what  are  the  essential 
connexions  among  them.  Hence  one  who  is  in  the  habit 
of  seeking  causes  is  in  the  habit  of  analysing.  I  have  up 
to  this  time  regarded  my  father  as  more  synthetic  than 
analytic :  being  led  to  do  so  by  his  perpetual  occupation 
with  synthetic  geometry.  But  now,  on  reconsidering  the 
facts,  I  see  that  he  was  in  large  measure  analytic.  He 
was  a  great  adept  at  making  solutions  of  puzzles,  verbal 
or  physical;  and  this  evidently  implies  analysis.  More- 
over, that  analysis  of  articulations  implied  by  his  system 
of  shorthand,  exhibited  the  faculty. 

No  doubt  this  habit  of  mind,  inherited  from  him  and 
fostered  by  him,  flourished  the  more  in  the  absence  of 
the  ordinary  appeals  to  supernatural  causes.  Though 
my  father  retained  the  leading  religious  convictions,  yet 
he  never  appeared  to  regard  any  occurrences  as  other 
than  natural.  It  should  also  be  remarked  that  dogmatic 
teaching  played  small  part  in  my  education.  Linguistic 
culture  is  based  on  authority,  and  as  I  rebelled  against 
it,  the  acceptance  of  things  simply  on  authority  was  not 
habitual.  On  the  other  hand,  the  study  of  Mathematics 
(conspicuously  Geometry  and  Mechanics),  with  which 
my  youth  was  mainly  occupied,  appeals,  at  each  step  in 
a  demonstration,  to  private  judgment,  and  in  a  sense 
recognises  the  right  of  private  judgment.  Many  times, 
too,  I  assisted  in  experiments  with  the  air-pump  and  the 
electrical  machine;  so  that  ideas  of  physical  causation 
were  repeatedly  impressed  on  me.  Moreover  such  small 
knowledge  of  natural  history  as  I  gained  by  rearing  in- 
sects, tended  to  familiarise  me  with  natural  genesis. 

I  have  elsewhere  named,  as  early  established,  the  habit 
of  castle-building,  carried  to  a  great  extent;  and  I  have 
expressed  the  belief  that  this  was  a  useful  exercise  of  the 
imagination — not  reminiscent  imagination,  but  construc- 
tive imagination.  Another  trait,  not  thus  far  named, 
306 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

and  which  I  inherited  from  my  father,  was  a  dominant 
ideality,  showing  itself  in  a  love  of  perfection.  In  him 
this  love  was  so  strong  that  it  became  a  hindrance.  He 
could  n"ot  let  a  thing  alone  as  being  finished.  With  me 
the  desire  to  make  work  better,  though  pronounced,  has 
not  gone  to  that  excess.  Still,  I  have  never  been  able  to 
rest  satisfied  with  anything  incomplete.  This  has  been 
shown  in  the  repeated  improvements  of  expression:  cor- 
rection, again  correction,  and  yet  again  correction,  has 
been  the  history  of  most  of  my  books.  The  love  of  com- 
pleteness has  been  curiously  shown  from  the  beginning 
by  the  habit  of  summarising  every  chapter.  I  could  not 
leave  a  thing  with  loose  ends :  the  ends  must  be  gathered 
together  and  tied  up.  This  trait  has  been  further  mani- 
fested in  the  tendency  not  to  rest  content  with  induction, 
but  to  continue  an  inquiry  until  the  generalisation 
reached  was  reduced  to  a  deduction.  Leaving  a  truth  in 
an  inductive  form  is,  in  a  sense,  leaving  its  parts  with 
loose  ends;  and  the  bringing  it  to  a  deductive  form  is, 
in  a  sense,  uniting  its  facts  as  all  parts  of  one  fact. 

A  general  result  of  these  natural  traits  and  this  kind 
of  culture  was  an  attitude  of  detachment.  The  absence 
of  those  studies,  linguistic  and  historical,  which  form  so 
large  a  part  of  the  ordinary  education,  left  me  free  from 
the  bias  given  by  the  plexus  of  traditional  ideas  and  sen- 
timents. This  detachment  had  the  same  kind  of  effect 
as  the  detachment  from  surrounding  authorities.  All  in- 
fluences thus  conspired  to  make  me  entirely  open  to  re- 
ceive those  impressions  and  ideas  produced  by  direct 
converse  with  things.  Elsewhere  I  have  referred  to  the 
fact  that  when  thirteen,  spite  of  the  high  authorities 
against  me,  I  denied  the  existence  of  inertia  as  a  positive 
force ;  and  have  instanced  it  as  showing  unusual  inde- 
pendence of  judgment,  at  the  same  time  that  it  implied 
an  unusual  intuition  of  physical  truths.  These  two 
traits,  joined  with  a  constructive  imagination  unusually 
active,  and  a  great  love  of  completeness,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  forming  my  positive  mental  equipment  at  the 
307 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

outset;  to  which  there  should  be  added  the  negative 
equipment,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  of  absence  of  culture  in 
"  the  humanities." 

But  I  must  not  forget  another  trait  of  nature — a  rel- 
ative liking  for  thought  in  contrast  with  a  relative  aver- 
sion to  action.  My  physical  constitution  did  not  yield 
such  overflow  of  energy  as  prompts  some  natures  to 
spontaneous  activity.  In  many  directions  action  was  en- 
tered upon  rather  reluctantly;  while  thinking  was  a 
pleasure.  Obviously  this  predominant  tendency  to  con- 
templation has  been  a  factor  in  my  career. 

Letters  written  home  when,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  I 
commenced  engineering  in  London,  show  an  excursive- 
ness  characteristic  of  me.  There  are,  I  see,  some  ideas 
respecting  the  expansion  of  steam  in  relation  to  its  heat, 
which,  quite  wrong  in  their  preliminary  assumptions, 
imply  the  absurd  supposition  that  the  question  had  not 
been  fully  worked  out  by  those  who  were  competent.  I 
refer  to  these  as  showing  both  the  self-confidence  and 
the  tendency  to  explore  in  the  field  of  physics :  the  idea 
of  natural  causation  being  dominant.  The  daily  profes- 
sional culture  in  surveying  and  making  drawings  of  ma- 
chinery, of  course  conduced  to  exact  thinking;  ever  im- 
pressing on  me  geometrical  truths  and  the  necessities  of 
relation. 

When,  after  nearly  a  year,  I  migrated  to  the  Birming- 
ham and  Gloucester  Railway,  influences  of  the  same  class 
continued  in  operation.  But  I  observe  here  coming  out 
the  trait  above  named — preference  for  thinking  to  acting. 
The  first  original  thing  I  did  was  devising  a  new  method 
of  drawing  the  curves  in  skew  arches ;  and  the  prompting 
motive  was  aversion  from  taking  much  trouble.  Subse- 
quent promptings  to  invention  had  the  same  origin.  The 
Scale  of  Equivalents  originated  from  my  dislike  to  the 
labour  of  reducing  a  set  of  dimensions  taken  in  inches 
and  eighths  into  hundredths  of  a  foot ;  and  though  I  do 
not  trace  to  that  cause  the  invention  I  called  a  Velocim- 
308 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

eter,  which  also  is  a  means  of  dispensing  with  calcula- 
tion, yet  the  consciousness  of  such  labour,  gone  through 
by  a  coadjutor,  directed  my  thoughts  into  the  channel 
which  led  to  it.  Other  devices,  dating  from  that  time, 
illustrated  the  same  excursiveness,  self-dependence,  and 
constructive  imagination.  The  latter  part  of  my  first 
engineering  period  brought  me  a  good  deal  in  contact 
with  men  and  with  business ;  and,  being  left  in  charge  of 
some  engineering  work  and  allowed  to  carry  out  my  own 
designs,  there  was  a  further  familiarising  with  mechan- 
ical truths  and  a  further  fostering  of  self-dependence. 
But  here  must  be  noted  a  significant  fact.  I  became  in- 
terested in  geology,  and  bought  Lyell's  Principles,  etc. 
The  result  of  reading  this  was  that,  rejecting  his  adverse 
arguments,  I  adopted  the  hypothesis  of  development, 
which  ever  after  influenced  my  thoughts.  I  was  then 
twenty. 

During  this  time  at  Worcester  politics  received  no  at- 
tention from  me.  But  when,  after  the  ending  of  my  en- 
gagement on  the  Birmingham  and  Gloucester  Railway, 
I  returned  to  Derby,  a  change  took  place  in  this  respect ; 
and  in  June,  1842,  my  thoughts  on  political  matters  re- 
sulted in  the  letters  to  The  Nonconformist  on  "  The 
Proper  Sphere  of  Government  " — a  somewhat  strange 
subject  for  a  young  man  of  twenty-two  to  enter  upon. 
The  general  tenor  of  these  letters  betrays  the  emotional 
leanings.  Individuality  was  pronounced  in  all  members 
of  the  family,  and  pronounced  individuality  is  necessarily 
more  or  less  at  variance  with  authority.  A  self-depend- 
ent and  self-asserting  nature  resists  all  such  government 
as  is  not  expressive  of  equitable  restraint.  Our  family 
was  essentially  a  dissenting  family ;  and  dissent  is  an  ex- 
pression of  antagonism  to  arbitrary  control.  Of  course  a 
wish  to  limit  State-action  is  a  natural  concomitant ;  and 
this  characterised  the  letters  on  "  The  Proper  Sphere  of 
Government."  Beyond  this  constitutional  tendency, 
here  first  illustrated,  there  was  shown  the  tendency  to 
regard  social  phenomena  as  subordinate  to  natural  law: 
309 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  two  tendencies  being,  in  an  indirect  way,  correlatives. 
Already  in  those  early  days  the  culture  I  have  described 
had  fostered  the  belief  that  in  society  as  in  the  world  at 
large,  there  are  uniformities  of  relation ;  and  national 
life  was  vaguely  thought  of  as  a  life  having  certain 
similarities  to  life  at  large.  Though  it  had  not  yet  taken 
shape,  there  was  a  dim  idea  of  a  social  organism. 

During  the  several  subsequent  years — years  of  miscel- 
laneous and  futile  activities  mainly  spent  over  inventions, 
but  partly  in  speculations,  political,  ethical,  linguistic, 
showing  as  always  the  excursive  tendency,  and  during 
which  there  was  some  art-culture — drawing,  modelling, 
and  music — there  is  little  to  be  noted  save  accentuation 
of  traits  already  shown.  One  matter,  however,  of  some 
significance  must  be  named.  From  the  time  when,  at 
about  the  age  of  eleven,  I  heard  a  series  of  lectures  on 
phrenology  by  Spurzheim,  who  was  going  through  the 
country  diffusing  the  doctrines  of  Gall,  I  had  been  a  be- 
liever in  phrenology.  Though  when  twenty-one  to  twenty- 
four  my  scepticism  had  not  risen  to  the  height  it  even- 
tually reached,  yet,  as  might  be  anticipated,  I  entertained 
sundry  phrenological  heresies,  and  expressed  them  in  ar- 
ticles published  in  a  quarterly  journal  called  The  Zoist* 
Two  of  these  I  need  not  name;  the  third  had  results. 
It  appeared  in  January,  1844,  under  the  title  "  A  New 
View  of  the  Functions  of  Imitation  and  Benevolence." 
The  essential  points  in  the  argument  were  that  the  func- 
tion of  the  organ  called  Imitation  is  to  produce  sym- 
pathy and  that  sympathy  is  the  root  of  benevolence. 
Years  afterwards  I  learned  that  the  genesis  of  benevo- 
lence by  sympathy  had  been  expounded  by  Adam  Smith ; 
but  in  1844  I  knew  his  name  only  as  the  writer  of  The 
Wealth  of  Nations. 

During  the  second  engineering  period  not  much  specu- 
lative activity  went  on.  There  were  devices  for  dimin- 
ishing monotonous  labour  and  there  was  the  ever-present 
thought  of  improvement.  From  the  one  cause  resulted 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  iv.,  pp.  51,  58. 
310 


'4 


SIR   CHARLES  LYELL. 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

the  little  appliance  for  facilitating  the  plotting  of  sec- 
tions; and  from  the  other  the  improved  levelling-staff 
and  the  proposed  new  type  of  level.  Here,  as  always, 
instead  of  accepting  the  settled  usages,  as  most  do,  the 
fact  that  they  were  settled  usages  had  no  influence  with 
me. 

Though  there  must  have  been  filiations  of  the  various 
mechanical  ideas  which  prompted  my  activities  between 
the  time  (1846)  when  my  railway  career  ended  and  the 
time  (1848)  when  my  literary  career  began,  yet  I  cannot 
recall  them.  There  was  a  little  invention,  the  binding 
pin,  by  which  I  made  some  money:  there  was  the  plan- 
ing machinery  by  which  I  lost  it ;  and  there  were  sundry 
ideas  which  did  not  reach  the  experimental  stage.  But 
new  ideas  of  some  kind  daily  occupied  me. 

During  all  this  second  engineering  period  there  had, 
I  doubt  not,  been  going  on  some  development  of  the  ideas 
set  forth  in  the  letters  on  "  The  Proper  Sphere  of  Gov- 
ernment." That  governmental  actions  should  be  defi- 
nitely restricted  was  a  conclusion  which  in  these  letters 
stood  without  a  satisfactory  basis.  What  ultimate  prin- 
ciple is  it  from  which  may  be  inferred  the  limits  of  State- 
action?  Analysis  was  required.  The  excogitation  of 
this  principle  and  the  perception  that  not  only  these 
limits,  but  also  the  requirements  of  equity  at  large  could 
be  deduced  from  it,  prompted  the  writing  of  Social 
Statics.  This  was  commenced  five  years  after  the  letters 
on  ' '  The  Proper  Sphere  of  Government  ' '  had  been  writ- 
ten. Let  me  add  that  during  the  interval  there  had  been 
going  on  that  political  activity  entailed  by  membership 
of  the  Complete  Suffrage  Union  and  advocacy  of  the 
doctrine  of  equal  political  rights :  a  kind  of  activity  and 
a  kind  of  exercised  sentiment  which  kept  in  mind  the 
principle  Social  Statics  elaborated. 

Concerning  Social  Statics  itself  there  are  various  note- 
worthy things  to  be  said.     There  is  no  invoking  of  au- 
thorities.    A    few    references,    mostly    dissentient,    are 
311 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

made  to  ethical  and  political  writers  whose  well-known 
doctrines  I  had  gathered  in  the  course  of  miscellaneous 
reading — not  from  their  books;  for  I  never  could  read 
books  the  cardinal  principles  of  which  I  rejected.  The 
course  pursued  in  this  case  as  in  others  was  to  go  back 
to  the  facts  as  presented  in  human  conduct  and  society, 
and  draw  inferences  direct  from  them. 

In  fulfilment  of  the  desire  for  ideal  completeness  there 
was,  at  the  outset,  a  presentation  of  the  entire  field  to  be 
covered  by  a  system  of  ethics.  In  pursuance  of  the  ordi- 
nary conception  theologically  derived,  ethics  had  been 
composed  of  interdicts  of  many  desired  actions  and  in- 
culcations of  actions  not  desired.  Ethical  teaching  had 
given  little  or  no  moral  sanction  to  pleasurable  activities. 
If  not  tacitly  frowned  upon,  they  were  certainly  not  en- 
joined. But  in  the  programme  with  which  Social  Statics 
begins — a  programme  corresponding  with  that  ultimately 
adopted  in  The  Principles  of  Ethics — there  was  a  division 
recognising  the  ethical  sanction  of  those  actions  required 
for  the  fulfilment  of  the  normal  functions  of  life,  and 
for  the  obtainment  of  those  pleasures  accompanying  the 
normal  functions.  There  was  an  assertion  of  the  moral 
claims  of  the  individual  to  natural  satisfactions  within 
specified  limits. 

And  here,  in  going  afresh  over  the  facts,  I  observe 
something  of  which  at  the  time  I  was  not  definitely  con- 
scious— that  the  first  principle  formulated  was  simply 
an  abstract  statement  of  the  conditions  under  which 
might  equitably  be  pursued  by  each  that  self-satisfaction 
just  insisted  upon  as  ethically  warranted.  It  was  an 
assertion  of  that  liberty,  within  limits,  to  pursue  the 
ends  of  life,  which  was  implied  in  the  assertion  that  en- 
joyment of  the  ends  of  life  is  moral.  And  this  leads  to 
a  remark  of  some  interest  concerning  the  mode  in  which 
this  principle  was  approached.  For  thirty  years  I  sup- 
posed myself  the  first  to  enunciate  this  doctrine  of  the 
liberty  of  each  limited  only  by  the  like  liberties  of  all — 
the  right  of  every  man  to  do  what  he  wills  so  long  as  he 
312 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

does  not  trench  upon  the  similar  rights  of  any  other  man. 
But  after  the  lapse  of  that  time  I  learned,  from  a  refer- 
ence in  Mind,  that  Kant  had  enunciated  this  principle. 
After  some  trouble  I  found  his  enunciation;  and  then  it 
became  manifest  that  Kant  had  reached  the  principle 
from  the  opposite  side.  He  had  specified  the  limits  to 
the  free  action  of  the  individual,  leaving  the  free  action 
as  a  thing  not  itself  to  be  asserted  but  rather  to  be  tacitly 
implied  in  the  assertion  of  limits.  I,  contrariwise,  had 
primarily  asserted  the  claim  of  each  to  free  action,  and 
had  secondarily  asserted  the  limits  arising  from  the  pres- 
ence of  others  having  similar  claim  to  free  action.  The 
two  modes  of  reaching  this  conclusion  are  significant  of 
the  difference  between  the  social  states  of  Germany  and 
England,  and  also  significant  of  the  individual  difference. 
Kant,  native  of  a  country  in  which  subordination  to 
authority  had  been  all  along  very  marked,  looked  at  this 
matter  from  the  side  of  restraint — individual  action  was 
to  be  restrained  within  certain  limits.  And  while  the 
limits  were  made  authoritative,  there  was  no  correspond- 
ing authoritativeness  claimed  for  the  right  of  free  action. 
With  me,  the  converse  happened.  Being  one  of  a  race 
much  more  habituated  to  individual  freedom,  the  pri- 
mary assertion  was  that  of  a  claim  to  free  action — not  a 
recognition  of  subordinations,  but  the  assertion  of  a  right 
subject  to  certain  subordinations.  And  while  this  oppo- 
site method  of  conceiving  the  matter  was  characteristic 
of  a  citizen  of  a  relatively  free  country,  it  was  more  es- 
pecially characteristic  of  one  in  whom  the  maintenance 
of  individuality  had  always  been  so  dominant.  I  empha- 
sise this  contrast  as  clearly  showing  the  extent  to  which 
the  emotional  nature  influences  the  intellectual  conclu- 
sions. 

The  next  fact  to  be  named  is,  that  there  was  now  dis- 
played the  tendency  to  pass  from  induction  to  deduction. 
The  views  I  had  expressed  respecting  the  limitation  of 
State  action  to  certain  spheres  and  exclusion  of  it  from 
other  spheres  were  lying  all  abroad:  each  standing  on 
313 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

its  own  merits  as  an  independent  belief.  Dissatisfaction 
with  that  condition  of  thought  led  to  the  search  for  an 
ultimate  principle  from  which  the  limitations  were  de- 
ducible;  and  this  when  found  proved  to  be  a  principle 
from  which  were  also  deducible  the  various  so-called 
rights.  The  whole  ethical  scheme,  in  so  far  as  justice  is 
concerned,  had  been  reduced  to  a  completely  deductive, 
and  consequently  quite  coherent,  form  satisfying  the  love 
of  ideal  completeness. 

Another  significant  fact  is,  that  throughout  the  whole 
argument  there  is  tacitly  assumed  the  process  of  Evolu- 
tion, in  so  far  as  human  nature  is  concerned.  There  is 
a  perpetual  assumption  of  the  moral  modifiability  of 
Man,  and  the  progressive  adaptation  of  his  character  to 
the  social  state.  It  is  alleged  that  his  moral  evolution 
depends  on  the  development  of  sympathy,  which  is  held 
to  be  the  root  of  both  justice  and  beneficence.  This 
change  of  mental  nature  is  ascribed  to  the  exercise  of  the 
sympathetic  emotions  consequent  upon  a  peaceful  social 
life,  and,  therefore,  tacitly  implies  the  inheritance  of 
functionally-produced  changes  of  structure.  There  is 
also  a  passing  recognition  of  Survival  of  the  Fittest. 
The  beneficence  of  the  process  by  which,  among  animals 
and  men,  the  inferior  disappear  and  leave  the  superior 
to  continue  the  race,  is  asserted ;  but  there  is  no  recogni- 
tion of  the  consequences  seen  by  Mr.  Darwin. 

•In  the  last  chapter,  entitled  "  General  Considera- 
tions," the  evolutionary  conception  is  distinctly  brought 
out  in  many  ways.  Civilisation  is  described  as  a  contin- 
uous moulding  of  human  beings  to  the  social  state,  and 
of  the  social  state  to  the  human  beings  as  they  become 
moulded :  the  two  acting  and  reacting.  Along  with  this 
there  is  recognised  the  analogy  between  a  society  formed 
of  individuals  and  an  animal  formed  of  living  cells  or 
units;  though  at  that  time  (1850)  the  hypothesis  that 
an  animal  is  thus  formed  was,  when  here  and  there 
hinted,  regarded  as  an  absurdity.  Along  with  the  con- 
ception of  this  analogy  of  ultimate  components  between 
314 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

the  social  organism  and  the  individual  organism,  there 
went  another  which  proved  of  far  greater  significance. 
How  I  came  by  the  idea  that  a  low  type  of  animal  con- 
sists of  numerous  like  parts  performing  like  functions, 
while  a  high  type  of  animal  consists  of  relatively  few 
unlike  parts  performing  unlike  functions,  I  do  not  re- 
member. It  may  have  been  from  Professor  Bymer 
Jones's  Animal  Kingdom;  for  some  of  the  facts  cited  are, 
I  think,  from  that  work.  But  wherever  this  general 
truth  came  from,  I  immediately  recognised  the  paral- 
lelism between  it  and  the  truth  presented  by  low  and 
high  types  of  societies.  This  was  the  earliest  foreshad- 
owing of  the  general  doctrine  of  Evolution. 

For  the  perception  that  there  is  a  progress  from  a  uni- 
form to  a  multiform  structure,  and  that  this  progress  is 
the  same  in  an  individual  organism  and  in  a  social  organ- 
ism, was  a  recognition  of  the  progress  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous,  though  no  such  words  were 
used.  I  had  at  that  time  no  thought  of  any  extension 
of  the  idea ;  but  evidently  there  was  the  germ  which  was 
presently  to  develop.  I  should  add  that  the  acquaint- 
ance which  I  accidentally  made  with  Coleridge 's  essay  on 
the  Idea  of  Life,  in  which  he  set  forth,  as  though  it  were 
his  own,  the  notion  of  Schelling,  that  Life  is  the  tendency 
to  individuation,  had  a  considerable  effect.  In  this  same 
chapter  it  is  referred  to  as  illustrated  alike  in  the  indi- 
viduation of  a  living  organism,  and  also  in  the  individua- 
tion of  a  society  as  it  progresses. 

Shortly  before,  or  immediately  after,  the  publication 
of  Social  Statics,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  G.  H. 
Lewes  at  one  of  Chapman's  soirees.  We  became  mu- 
tually interested,  and  walked  towards  our  homes  to- 
gether. I  remember  the  incident  because  conversation 
during  the  walk  having  turned  upon  the  Development 
Question,  I  surprised  Mr.  Lewes  by  rejecting  the  view 
set  forth  in  the  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Crea- 
tion, which  he  supposed  to  be  the  only  view,  and  assert- 
ing the  view  that  functional  adaptation  is  the  sole  cause 
315 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

of  development.  I  name  the  fact  as  showing  what  my 
belief  was  at  the  close  of  1850  or  beginning  of  1851. 

Nothing  noteworthy  in  the  development  of  ideas  oc- 
curred during  that  period  of  mental  inertia  which  fol- 
lowed the  publication  of  Social  Statics.  I  think  it  prob- 
able, however,  that  further  materials  for  thought  were 
afforded  by  the  lectures  of  Professor  Owen  on  Compara- 
tive Osteology,  given  at  the  College  of  Surgeons,  which 
I  attended.  Along  with  a  mass  of  details,  there  were 
presented  to  me  certain  general  facts  which  were  sug- 
gestive. An  hypothesis  sets  up  a  process  of  organisa- 
tion in  thoughts  previously  lying  unorganised.  The 
effect  is  analogous  to  that  which  results  when  a  sperm- 
cell  is  added  to  a  germ-cell.  In  the  facts  as  exhibited 
throughout  Professor  Owen's  lectures,  there  were  many 
illustrations  of  the  truth  that  the  skeletons  of  low  types 
of  animals  are  relatively  uniform  in  their  structures — 
showing  what  he  then  and  at  other  times  used  to  call 
"  vegetative  repetition."  I  could  not  accept  his  Pla- 
tonic notion  of  an  ideal  vertebra,  of  which  he  considered 
each  actual  vertebra  an  embodiment ;  but  his  facts  illus- 
trated progress  from  the  uniform  to  the  multiform  in 
the  course  of  osteological  organisation.  I  do  not  remem- 
ber that  I  thought  anything  to  that  effect,  but  here  were 
materials  for  further  development  of  the  conception 
illustrated  at  the  close  of  Social  Statics. 

The  acquaintance  made  with  Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes  was  fol- 
lowed by  two  country  excursions  which  we  made  together 
in  the  autumn  of  1851 — the  first  up  the  Thames  Valley 
from  Maidenhead  as  far  as  Abingdon,  and  the  other  in 
Kent,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Maidstone.  They  were 
accompanied  by  a  great  deal  of  philosophic  talk.  One 
effect,  as  indicated  in  George  Eliot's  Life,  was  to  give 
him  an  active  scientific  interest.  Another  effect  was  that 
a  leaf  I  gathered  suggested  to  me  certain  facts  of  plant- 
structure  :  recognition  of  the  Law  of  Organic  Symmetry 
being  the  ultimate  consequence.1  During  the  second  ex- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  p.  82. 

316 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

cursion  I  made  acquaintance  with  a  little  book  just  pub- 
lished by  Milne-Edwards,  which  we  looked  into  on  board 
the  steamer  carrying  us  to  Gravesend.  It  set  forth  the 
luminous  idea  of  ' '  the  physiological  division  of  labour. ' ' 
Though  the  conception  was  not  new  to  me,  for  it  was 
illustrated  at  the  close  of  Social  Statics,  yet  this  phrase, 
expressing  an  analogy  between  individual  organisations 
and  social  organisations  in  so  vivid  a  manner,  gave 
greater  distinctness  to  pre-existing  thoughts.  The  read- 
ing of  Lewes 's  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy, 
which  resulted  from  my  acquaintance  with  him,  did  not, 
so  far  as  I  remember,  give  origin  to  any  special  ideas; 
but  it  gave  me  an  interest  in  philosophical  and  pyscho- 
logical  inquiries  greater  than  had  before  existed.  Pres- 
entation of  the  doctrines  of  various  schools  throughout 
the  past  served,  not  so  much  as  a  means  of  acquiring 
their  thoughts  as  a  means  of  stimulating  my  own 
thoughts,  and  this  effect  began  presently  to  show  itself. 
During  the  first  months  of  1852  the  essay  on  the 
"  Theory  of  Population  "  occupied  me.  Chapman,  then 
proprietor  of  the  Westminster  Review,  to  whom  I  had  on 
some  occasion  expressed  my  view  respecting  the  decrease 
of  fertility  which  goes  along  with  higher  development, 
had  been  anxious  to  have  an  article  on  the  subject.  I  at 
first  declined  for  the  assigned  reason  that  I  proposed  to 
write  a  book  about  the  matter.  Subsequently  circum- 
stances decided  me  to  accede  to  Chapman's  proposal,  and 
the  article  was  written  for  the  April  number.  Here 
again  was  illustrated  the  truth  that  a  germinal  idea 
thrown  among  unorganised  materials  sets  up  organisa- 
tion. The  notion  had  been  present  with  me,  certainly 
from  1846-7,  and  how  much  earlier  I  do  not  know.1  But 
now  the  working  hypothesis  soon  caused  such  knowledge 
as  I  had  to  take  shape,  and  gave  the  power  of  rapidly 
assimilating  other  knowledge.  Support  was  found  in 
the  doctrine  of  individuation  above  named;  for  a  thesis 
running  throughout  the  essay  is  that  individuation  and 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  p.  84. 
317 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

reproduction  are  antagonistic — a  formula  which,  ex- 
pressed in  physical  terms,  as  I  should  in  later  days  have 
expressed  it,  is  equivalent  to — Integration  and  Disinte- 
gration are  antagonistic.  A  collateral  effect  of  the  read- 
ing of  Coleridge's  essay  on  the  Idea  of  Life  was  that  of 
making  one  seek  a  better  definition  of  Life  than  "  the 
tendency  to  Individuation."  Hence  resulted  the  defini- 
tion given  in  that  essay — the  coordination  of  actions. 
Though  a  better 'one,  this  formula  was  incomplete  be- 
cause it  limited  the  conception  to  actions  going  on  within 
the  organism,  without  reference  to  those  external  actions 
which  they  are  adjusted  to. 

As  narrated  elsewhere,  this  essay  on  "  The  Theory 
of  Population  "  led  to  my  friendship  with  Huxley.1  I 
name  the  fact  here  because  within  a  few  weeks  of  its 
commencement  there  was  an  incident  which  fixes  the 
date  of  one  of  my  beliefs.  I  had  suggested  an  introduc- 
tion to  Lewes,  and  had  taken  Huxley  to  Bedford  Place, 
Kensington,  where  Lewes  then  resided.  On  our  way  back 
the  discussion  turned  on  the  Development  question,  and 
he  ridiculed  the  notion  of  a  chain  of  beings.  I  said  that 
I  no  more  accepted  that  symbol  than  he  did,  and  that  a 
tree  was  the  true  symbol.  How  long  I  had  thought  this 
I  do  not  know;  but  the  incident  shows  that  before  that 
time  there  had  arisen  a  belief  which  we  shall  presently 
see  pervaded  other  speculations.  It  is  observable  that 
this  conception  of  divergent  and  redivergent  branches 
implies  the  conception  of  increasing  multiformity  or 
heterogeneity — one  thing  giving  origin  to  many  things : 
the  thoughts  are  manifestly  akin. 

Persuaded  by  Lewes,  who  was  at  that  time  literary 
editor  of  the  Leader  (a  paper  which  died  a  few  years 
afterwards),  I  wrote  for  it  a  series  of  short  essays  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Haythorne  Papers  " — a  name  given 
as  a  bracket  holding  them  together.  They  show  the 
usual  excursiveness,  and  a  tendency  everywhere  to  an- 
alyse and  to  generalise.  The  second  of  them,  entitled 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  p.  85. 
318 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

"  The  Development  Hypothesis,"  was  of  fundamental 
significance.1  It  shows  that  in  1852  the  belief  in  organic 
evolution  had  taken  deep  root,  and  had  drawn  to  itself 
a  large  amount  of  evidence — evidence  not  derived  from 
numerous  special  instances  but  derived  from  the  general 
aspects  of  organic  nature,  and  from  the  necessity  of  ac- 
cepting the  hypothesis  of  Evolution  when  the  hypothesis 
of  Special  Creation  has  been  rejected.  The  Special 
Creation  belief  had  dropped  out  of  my  mind  many  years 
before,  and  I  could  not  remain  in  a  suspended  state: 
acceptance  of  the  only  conceivable  alternative  was  per- 
emptory. This  distinct  and  public  enunciation  of  the 
belief  was  but  a  giving  definite  form  to  thoughts  which 
had  been  gradually  growing,  as  was  shown  in  Social 
Statics. 

From  this  time  onwards  the  evolutionary  interpreta- 
tion of  things  in  general  became  habitual,  and  manifested 
itself  in  curious  ways.  One  would  not  have  expected  to 
find  it  in  an  essay  on  "  The  Philosophy  of  Style  ";  but 
at  the  close  of  that  essay,  written  in  1852,  the  truth  that 
progress  in  style  is  from  uniformity  to  multiformity — 
from  a  more  homogeneous  to  a  more  heterogeneous  form 
— finds  expression:  showing  that  in  mental  products, 
too,  the  distinctive  nature  of  high  structure  was  begin- 
ning to  be  recognised.  The  progress  of  thought  in  an- 
other direction  was  shown  in  an  essay  on  "  The  Univer- 
sal Postulate. "  2  I  had  been  reading  Mill 's  Logic.  In 
it  occur  his  strictures  on  "Whewell;  and  while  agreeing 
as  to  the  unsoundness  of  Whewell 's  doctrine,  I  did  not 
agree  in  the  reason  for  rejecting  it.  Hence  the  essay. 
This  involved  the  first  expression  of  metaphysical  con- 
victions ;  for  the  outcome  of  the  argument  was  a  defence 
of  realism  and  an  assertion  of  the  impossibility  of  estab- 
lishing any  belief  at  variance  with  it.  Up  to  this  time, 
thinking  with  me  had  been  mainly  concrete  in  character, 
but  now  it  assumed  an  abstract  character ;  and  thereafter 
the  abstract  and  the  concrete  went  hand  in  hand,  as  the 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  p.  85.      2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  pp.  87,  90,  95. 

319 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

inductive  and  the  deductive  were  already  doing.  This 
essay  on  "  The  Universal  Postulate  "  ended  in  a  con- 
troversy with  Mill,  which,  taking  its  first  shape  in  the 
next  edition  of  his  Logic,  went  on  at  intervals  in  an 
amicable  manner  for  some  years  and  eventually  led  to 
our  friendship. 

In  an  essay  on  "  Manners  and  Fashion  "  develop- 
mental ideas  again  displayed  themselves.  The  origin  of 
institutions  by  a  process  of  evolution  was  taken  for 
granted ;  and  there  was  delineated  the  rise  of  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  government  by  divergence  from  one  original 
kind,  which  united  the  ceremonial,  the  political,  and  the 
ecclesiastical.  There  was  also  this  same  idea  running 
throughout  the  account  of  the  genesis  of  the  different 
forms  of  manners  from  simple  original  forms — a  multi- 
plication of  kinds  from  one  kind. 

A  like  trend  of  thought  was  shown  in  "  The  Art  of 
Education,"  published  in  the  North  British  Review 
(since  deceased),  and  now  embodied  in  my  little  book  on 
Education.  Various  evolutionary  corollaries  were  drawn 
from  the  proposition  that  the  unfolding  of  a  child's 
mind  repeats  the  unfolding  of  the  mind  in  the  human 
race.  It  was  urged  that  education  must  proceed  "  from 
the  simple  to  the  complex,"  since  the  mind,  "  like  all 
things  that  develop,  progresses  from  the  homogeneous 
to  the  heterogeneous."  It  was  contended  that  the  de- 
velopment of  mind  "is  an  advance  from  the  indefinite 
to  the  definite,"  and  that  teaching  must  follow  that 
course.  A  further  corollary  was  that  as  "  humanity 
had  progressed  solely  by  self -instruction, "  "  self -devel- 
opment should  be  encouraged  to  the  uttermost  in  the 
child." 

About  this  time,  1854,  Miss  Martineau's  abridged 
translation  of  Comte's  works  was  published.  I  had  al- 
ready gathered  a  notion  of  his  system  from  Lewes,  who 
was  a  disciple  and  had  written  in  the  Leader  some  papers 
giving  an  abstract  of  it;  and  a  more  specific  knowledge 
of  Comte's  cardinal  ideas  had  been  gained  in  1852,  from 
320 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

reading  the  introduction  at  the  instigation  of  George 
Eliot,  and  with  her  aid.  She,  too,  was  anxious  that  I 
should  accept  Positivist  doctrines.  But  the  reading  of 
the  Introduction,  while  it  left  me  undecided  respecting 
the  doctrine  of  the  Three  Stages,  was  followed  by  imme- 
diate rejection  of  the  Classification  of  the  Sciences. 
Now  that  the  translation  was  published,  I  looked  further 
into  the  Positive  Philosophy,  with  the  result  that  I  en- 
gaged to  write  a  review  of  it  for  the  British  Quarterly. 
Being  an  impatient  reader,  especially  when  reading 
views  from  which  I  dissent,  I  did  not  go  far.  But  the 
part  I  read,  and  which  prompted  me  to  write  a  criticism, 
had  a  very  important  effect.  I  have  said  elsewhere  that 
I  owe  much  to  Comte — not  in  the  sense  assumed  by  his 
disciples,  but  in  an  opposite  sense.  I  owe  to  him  the 
benefits  of  an  antagonism  which  cleared  and  developed 
my  own  views,  while  assigning  reasons  for  dissenting 
from  his.  Rejection  of  his  ideas  concerning  the  develop- 
ment of  the  sciences,  led  to  those  ideas  of  my  own  which 
are  set  forth  in  "  The  Genesis  of  Science  ";  and  these 
had  significant  relations  to  the  psychological  ideas  soon 
afterwards  elaborated.  The  rise  of  certain  fundamental 
perceptions  and  fundamental  acts  of  reasoning  was  as- 
cribed to  gradual  organisation  of  experiences.  There 
was  a  development  of  the  idea  of  likeness,  and  out  of  this 
the  idea  of  equality  and  inequality.  From  the  likenesses 
and  unlikenesses  of  things,  a  transition  to  the  likenesses 
and  unlikenesses  of  relations,  was  alleged ;  and  this,  lead- 
ing to  recognition  of  the  equality  of  relations,  was  repre- 
sented as  the  basis  of  reasoning.  Then  it  was  shown  that 
throughout  this  development  divergence  and  re-diver- 
gence go  on,  causing  multiplication  and  heterogeneity  of 
sciences:  the  symbol  of  a  tree  being  here  again  used. 
And  it  was  further  pointed  out  that  along  with  differ- 
entiation of  the  sciences  there  goes  increasing  interde- 
pendence, that  is  to  say,  integration.  Thus,  while  there 
were  several  traits  foreshadowing  a  psychological  theory, 
there  were  other  traits  foreshadowing  a  general  evolu- 
321 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

tionary  conception,  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  intelligence 
and  its  products.1 

In  what  year  I  decided  to  write  a  book  on  the  Princi- 
ples of  Psychology  I  do  not  remember.2  But  in  1853, 
there  was  reached  one  of  its  leading  views,  consequent 
on  the  perception  that  the  definition  of  life  as  "  the  co- 
ordination of  actions,"  required  to  be  supplemented  by 
recognition  of  the  relations  borne  by  such  co-ordinated 
actions  to  connected  actions  in  the  environment.  There 
at  once  followed  the  idea  that  the  growth  of  a  corre- 
spondence between  inner  and  outer  actions  had  to  be 
traced  up  from  the  beginning;  so  as  to  show  the  way  in 
which  Mind  gradually  evolves  out  of  Life.  This  was,  I 
think,  the  thought  which  originated  the  book  and  gave 
its  most  distinctive  character;  but  evidently,  the  tend- 
ency to  regard  all  things  as  evolved,  which  had  been 
growing  more  pronounced,  gave  another  special  interest 
to  the  undertaking.  The  evolutional  view  of  human 
nature  had  been  assumed  all  through  Social  Statics,  and 
in  the  essay  on  "  The  Development  Hypothesis  "  belief 
in  evolution  had  been  distinctly  avowed  as  holding  of 
the  organic  creation.  The  progress  of  organisms  and  of 
societies  from  the  uniform  to  the  multiform  had  been 
recognised,  and  the  thought  of  increasing  mutual  de- 
pendence of  parts  had  been  accentuated  by  meeting  with 
Milne-Edwards 's  phrase  "  the  physiological  division  of 
labour."  Then  came  the  congruous  formula  of  Von 
Baer — of  development  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous.  At  the  same  time  had  arisen  the  correla- 
tive conception  of  divergence  and  redivergence,  and  con- 
sequent increasing  multiformity,  as  occurring  in  organ- 
isms, in  governmental  organisations,  and  in  the  genesis 
of  the  sciences.  Advance  from  the  indefinite  to  the  defi- 
nite, as  displayed  in  the  individual  mind  and  in  the  mind 
of  humanity,  had  also  been  recognised.  Thus  various 
ideas,  forming  components  of  a  theory  of  evolution,  were 
lying  ready  for  organisation.  And  after  publication 
1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  pp.  93,  96.  2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  p.  87. 
322 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

of  the  essay  on  "  The  Genesis  of  Science,"  in  which  the 
evolutional  view  of  mental  progress  was  so  pronounced 
and  coherent,  the  Principles  of  Psychology,  which  for  a 
year  or  more  previously  had  been  taking  shape,  was 
commenced.1 

Under  the  promptings  above  described,  the  part  en- 
titled "  General  Synthesis  "  was  the  one  to  which  I  first 
devoted  myself;  and  it  was  the  writing  of  this  that  led 
to  a  wider  and  more  coherent  conception  of  evolution. 
Among  the  component  chapters  are  some  entitled  "  The 
Correspondence  as  direct  and  Homogeneous,"  "  The 
Correspondence  as  direct  but  Heterogeneous,"  "  The  In- 
tegration of  Correspondences."  Here,  then,  in  another 
sphere  had  arisen  the  recognition  of  progress  from  the 
homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous ;  and  it  was  the  joining 
of  this  with  the  various  previous  recognitions  which  led 
to  the  question — Is  not  change  from  homogeneity  to 
heterogeneity  universal?  The  question  needed  only  to 
be  asked  to  be  answered  affirmatively.  In  pursuance  of 
that  tendency  which  I  have  before  described  as  charac- 
teristic, there  forthwith  arose  a  desire  to  find  for  this  in- 
duction a  deductive  interpretation.  This  universal  pro- 
clivity must  have  a  universal  cause.  What  is  that  cause  ? 
And  the  answer  soon  reached  was  that  it  is  the  multipli- 
cation of  effects.  It  was  at  Treport  in  August,  1854,  that 
this  generalisation,  inductive  and  deductive,  was 
reached ; 2  and  I  immediately  decided  that  as  soon  as 
the  Principles  of  Psychology  was  completed  I  would 
write  an  essay  under  the  title  "The  Cause  of  all  Prog- 
ress." Whether  I  then  wrote  to  Chapman  proposing 
such  an  article  for  the  Westminster  Review,  or  whether 
I  made  the  proposal  when  I  saw  him  in  London  later  in 
the  year,  I  cannot  remember.  I  think  the  last  is  the 
more  probable.  Certainly,  however,  before  the  close  of 
the  year  an  agreement  was  made  for  such  an  article :  the 
title,  however,  being  negatived  by  Chapman  as  appearing 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  pp.  93,  96. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  p.  98. 

323 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

too  ambitious,  and  "  Progress:  its  Law  and  Cause  "  be- 
ing substituted. 

Of  course  the  evolution  of  mind  thus  traced  up 
throughout  the  Animal  Kingdom  as  a  part  of  the  pro- 
gressive correspondence  between  inner  and  outer  actions, 
could  be  made  clear  only  by  various  sequent  interpreta- 
tions. Hence  resulted  the  chapters  on  "  The  Nature  of 
Intelligence  "  and  "  The  Law  of  Intelligence."  After 
these  more  abstract  conceptions  came  the  more  concrete 
conceptions  of  Reflex  Action,  Instinct  and  Reason  as  con- 
forming to  the  general  view.  Finally,  on  rising  up  to 
human  faculties,  regarded  as  organised  results  of  this 
intercourse  between  the  organism  and  the  environment, 
there  was  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  so-called  forms 
of  thought  are  the  outcome  of  the  process  of  perpetually 
adjusting  inner  relations  to  outer  relations;  fixed  rela- 
tions in  the  environment  producing  fixed  relations  in  the 
mind.  And  «o  came  a  reconciliation  of  the  a  priori  view 
with  the  experiential  view.  The  whole  theory  of  mental 
development  as  thus  presented,  assumed  that  the  corre- 
spondence between  inner  and  outer  came  to  be  gradually 
established  because  the  effects  registered  in  the  nervous 
systems  of  one  generation  were  more  or  less  transmitted 
as  modifications  of  the  nervous  systems  in  the  next  gen- 
eration. Though,  nowadays,  I  see  that  the  natural  selec- 
tion of  variations  in  the  nervous  system  has  been  a 
factor,  and,  in  the  earliest  stages,  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant factor,  yet  I  still  hold,  as  I  then  held,  that  the  in- 
heritance of  functionally-wrought  modifications  is  the 
chief  and  almost  exclusive  factor  in  the  genesis  of  all  the 
more  complex  instincts  and  all  the  higher  mental  powers. 
But  the  evolutionary  view  of  mind,  though  manifested 
throughout  the  whole  argument  of  these  chapters,  was 
not  put  into  the  foreground ;  partly,  I  suppose,  because 
the  evolutionary  view  of  Life  in  general  was  at  that 
time  almost  universally  rejected  and  mostly  ridiculed. 

The  thesis  elaborated  in  the  division  entitled  "  Special 
Analysis  "  was  suggested  by  the  conclusions  reached  in 
324 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

the  essay  on  "  The  Genesis  of  Science,"  respecting  the 
development  of  the  ideas  of  equality  of  things  and  equal- 
ity of  relations.  It  needs  but  to  read  that  essay  to  see 
that  this  conception  of  growing  intellectual  perceptions 
arose  in  the  course  of  a  search  for  the  initial  ideas  of 
science;  and,  on  comparison,  it  will  be  manifest  that  the 
successive  chapters  of  this  "  Special  Analysis  "  are  but 
an  elaboration  of  that  initial  thought.  Here  the  remark- 
able fact  to  be  noted  is  that  there  has,  unintentionally  as 
I  believe,  resulted  a  complete  correspondence  between 
the  General  Synthesis  and  the  Special  Analysis — between 
the  putting  together  and  the  taking  to  pieces;  for  the 
adjustment  of  inner  relations  to  outer  relations,  posited 
in  the  one  case,  is,  in  the  other  case,  the  root  down  to 
which  the  mental  structure  is  traced.  Concerning  the 
conclusions  which  make  up  the  "  Special  Analysis  "  one 
only  calls  for  separate  mention — the  paradoxical  one 
that  Logic,  hitherto  regarded  as  a  subjective  science,  is 
in  reality  an  objective  science.  Authority  and  long 
usage  may  give  such  strength  to  a  belief  that  no  dis- 
proof changes  it.  I  have  furnished  a  triple  demonstra- 
tion of  the  objective  nature  of  Logic,  but  the  old  idea 
persists  without  even  a  sign  of  change. 

As  stated  in  the  preface  to  the  volume  when  published 
in  July,  1855,  there  was  omitted  a  final  part  which  would 
have  been  called,  as  in  after  years  it  was  called,  "  Phys- 
ical Synthesis. ' '  In  this  I  had  intended  to  show  the  way 
in  which  these  evolutionary  mental  processes  are  to  be 
interpreted  as  resulting  from  the  passage  of  nervous  dis- 
charges along  lines  of  least  resistance,  which  became  lines 
of  less  and  less  resistance  in  proportion  as  they  were 
oftener  and  more  strongly  traversed. 

Concerning  the  ideas  of  this  work  it  remains  only  to 
add  that  in  the  "  General  Analysis  "  was  set  forth  the 
logical  justification  of  that  Realism  without  which  the 
evolutionary  view,  in  common  with  scientific  views  at 
large,  becomes  inconceivable.  It  was  an  elaboration  of 
325 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

the  Universal  Postulate  and  its  corollaries:  the  general 
thesis  being  that  Idealism  takes  for  granted  at  every  step 
of  its  argument  the  validity  of  that  test-proof  which  it 
ends  by  tacitly  denying. 

After  the  interval  of  incapacity  for  work  extending 
from  July,  1855,  to  January,  1857 ;  I  at  length  prepared 
the  long-contemplated  essay  on  ' '  Progress :  its  Law  and 
Cause."1  This  was  published  in  April,  1857;  and  in  it 
the  general  conception  which  had  been  reached  in  Au- 
gust, 1854,  was  set  forth  in  detail.  Here  may  fitly  be  re- 
marked a  disproof  of  the  statement  not  uncommonly 
made  that  my  thinking  has  been  a  priori.  Besides  many 
other  evidences,  the  genesis  of  this  essay  is  a  clear  dem- 
onstration to  the  contrary.  Progress  from  homogeneity 
to  heterogeneity  was  observed  now  in  one  class  of  phe- 
nomena and  now  in  another,  until  the  instances  had  be- 
come many  and  varied.  Only  then  came  the  generalisa- 
tion that  this  transformation  is  universal ;  and  only  then 
did  there  commence  a  search  for  the  ultimate  truth  from 
which  the  induction  might  be  deduced.  But  in  some 
men — and  especially  so  was  it  in  Huxley — the  hatred  of 
deductive  reasoning  is  such  that  the  mere  fact  that  an 
induction  can  be  interpreted  deductively  arouses  doubt. 
The  rhythm  of  action  and  reaction  necessarily  carries 
opinion  to  extremes;  and  the  reaction  against  a  priori 
reasoning  in  Biology  and  Geology,  had  gone  to  the  ex- 
treme of  repudiating  all  reasoning  but  the  a  posteriori. 

The  origin  of  the  next  step  I  cannot  remember. 
Whether  it  was  that  on  contemplating  the  multiplication 
of  effects  there  arose  the  question — How  does  there  arise 
the  first  effect? — I  do  not  know.  But  a  short  time  after 
the  publication  of  the  above-named  essay,  came  percep- 
tion of  the  truth  that  a  state  of  homogeneity  is  an  unsta- 
ble state.  In  an  article  originally  called  by  me  "  Tran- 
scendental Physiology,"  but  entitled  by  the  editor  "  The 
Ultimate  Laws  of  Physiology,"  a  statement  of  this  gen- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  p.  108. 
326 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

eral  truth  was  published  in  the  National  Review  for 
October,  1857. x  This  generalisation  was  not  like  the 
other  inductively  reached,  but  was,  I  think,  deductive 
from  the  outset:  resulted  from  the  prosecution  of  an- 
alysis. But  though  not  forced  upon  me  by  observation 
it  was,  in  the  essay  named,  exemplified  by  facts  of  vari- 
ous orders:  the  deduction  was  here  verified  by  induc- 
tion. At  the  same  time  was  set  forth  the  process  of  in- 
tegration as  part  of  the  process  of  evolution,  both  or- 
ganic and  social.  But,  as  in  the  Principles  of  Psychol- 
ogy so  here,  it  made  its  appearance  as  a  subordinate  or 
secondary  process — was  not  recognised  as  a  primary 
process.  The  development  of  thought  in  this  direction 
was  delayed  until  some  seven  years  had  passed. 

During  the  same  summer,  while  rambling  in  Scotland, 
there  was  written  another  essay,  evolutionary  in  sub- 
stance though  not  professedly  forming  a  part  of  the  doc- 
trine— the  essay  on  "  The  Origin  and  Function  of 
Music."  How  there  had  arisen  the  belief  that  music 
results  from  development  and  idealisation  of  those 
cadences  of  the  voice  which  indicate  emotion,  I  cannot 
remember.  But"  it  shows  again  the  ever-present  belief 
in  natural  genesis — the  growth  of  the  complex  out  of  the 
simple.  There  had  probably  suggested  itself  the  ques- 
tion— Where  does  music  come  from?  and  in  default  of 
the  theory  of  supernatural  endowment,  the  origin  set 
forth  seemed  the  only  possible  one. 

The  drift  of  thought  thus  so  variously  displayed,  was 
now  made  still  more  decided  by  re-reading  my  essays 
while  preparing  them  for  publication  in  a  volume:  and 
thereupon  followed  the  final  result.2  During  a  walk  one 
fine  Sunday  morning  (or  perhaps  it  may  have  been  New 
Year's  Day)  in  the  Christmas  of  1857-8  I  happened  to 
stand  by  the  side  of  a  pool  along  which  a  gentle  breeze 
was  bringing  small  waves  to  the  shore  at  my  feet.  While 
watching  these  undulations  I  was  led  to  think  of  other 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  p.  108.         *  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  110. 
327 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

undulations — other  rhythms;  and  probably,  as  my  man- 
ner was,  remembered  extreme  cases — the  undulations  of 
the  ether,  and  the  rises  and  falls  in  the  prices  of  money, 
shares,  and  commodities.  In  the  course  of  the  walk 
arose  the  inquiry — Is  not  the  rhythm  of  motion  univer- 
sal? and  the  answer  soon  reached  was — Yes.  Presently 
— either  forthwith  or  in  the  course  of  the  next  few  days 
— came  a  much  more  important  result.  This  generalisa- 
tion concerning  the  rhythm  of  motion  recalled  the  gen- 
eralisation which  was  to  have  been  set  forth  in  the  un- 
written part  of  the  Principles  of  Psychology — the  gener- 
alisation that  motion  universally  takes  place  along  the 
line  of  least  resistance.  Moreover  there  had  become 
familiar  to  me  the  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of  Force, 
as  it  was  then  called — in  those  days  a  novelty ;  and  with 
this  was  joined  in  my  mind  Sir  William  Groves 's  doc- 
trine of  the  correlation  of  the  physical  forces.  Of  course 
these  universal  principles  ranged  themselves  alongside 
the  two  universal  principles  I  had  been  recently  illus- 
trating— the  instability  of  the  homogeneous  and  the  mul- 
tiplication of  effects.  As,  during  the  preceding  year,  I 
had  been  showing  how  throughout  all  orders  of  phe- 
nomena, from  nebular  genesis  to  the  genesis  of  language, 
science,  art,  there  ever  goes  on  a  change  of  the  simple 
into  the  complex,  of  the  uniform  into  the  multiform, 
there  naturally  arose  the  thought — these  various  univer- 
sal truths  are  manifestly  aspects  of  one  universal  trans- 
formation. Surely,  then,  the  proper  course  is  thus  to 
exhibit  them — to  treat  astronomy,  geology,  biology,  psy- 
chology, sociology  and  social  products,  in  successive 
order  from  the  evolution  point  of  view.  Evidently  these 
universal  laws  of  force  to  which  conforms  this  unceasing 
redistribution  of  matter  and  motion,  constitute  the  nexus 
of  these  concrete  sciences — express  a  community  of 
nature  which  binds  them  together  as  parts  of  a  whole. 
And  then  came  the  idea  of  trying  thus  to  present  them. 
Some  such  thoughts  they  were  which  gave  rise  to  my 
project,  and  which,  a  few  days  later,  led  to  the  writing 
328 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

out  of  the  original  programme,  still  extant.     This  I  sent 
to  my  father  on  the  9th  January,  1858.1 

During  the  subsequent  two  years,  partly  occupied  with 
vain  endeavours  to  find  some  way  of  executing  my 
project,  there  appears  to  have  taken  place  some  elabo- 
ration of  this  programme;  but,  so  far  as  I  remember,  no 
important  addition  was  made  to  its  leading  ideas ;  unless 
it  be  the  conclusion  that  these  laws  of  transformation, 
and  the  ultimate  physical  laws  whence  they  result,  are 
all  corollaries  from  the  Persistence  of  Force.  This  may, 
however,  have  been  a  later  conclusion,  but,  whenever 
arrived  at,  it  implied  the  analytic  habit ;  since  it  gave  an 
answer  to  the  questions — Why  is  the  homogeneous  un- 
stable? Why  do  effects  multiply?  Why  is  motion 
rhythmical?  There  was  no  rest  till  there  was  reached 
this  final  truth  not  to  be  transcended — a  truth  equivalent 
to  the  truth  that  existence  can  neither  arise  out  of  noth- 
ing nor  lapse  into  nothing. 

The  evolutionary  belief  implied  interest  in  all  orders 
of  phenomena  throughout  which,  according  to  its  thesis, 
it  should  be  displayed.  Hence  physical  astronomy  be- 
came interesting.  During  many  preceding  years  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis  had  been  apparently  discredited  by 
the  revelations  of  Lord  Rosse's  telescope:  the  resolution 
of  various  apparent  nebulae  into  clusters  of  stars,  was 
supposed  to  have  given  the  Coup  de  grace  to  the  theories 
of  Kant  and  Laplace;  or.  at  any  rate,  it  was  concluded 

1  In  reply  to  questions  from  Professor  A.  S.  Packard,  of  Brown 
University,  Providence,  Spencer  wrote  (15  August,  1902):  "I 
believe  you  are  right  in  crediting  me  with  the  introduction  of 
the  word  'evolution.'  I  did  not,  however,  introduce  it  in  the 
place  of  'epigenesis,'  or  any  word  of  specially  biological  applica- 
tion, but  as  a  word  fit  for  expressing  the  process  of  evolution 
throughout  its  entire  range,  inorganic  and  organic. 

"  I  believe  the  introduction  of  it  was  between  1857,  when 
'Progress:  its  Law  and  Cause'  (was  issued),  and  the  time  when 
the  scheme  for  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  was  drawn  up;  and 
the  adoption  of  it  arose  from  the  perception  that  'progress'  has 
an  anthropocentric  meaning,  and  that  there  needed  a  word  free 
from  that." 

329 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

that  all  such  support  as  appeared  to  be  furnished  by  the 
present  existence  of  nebulous  matter  was  dissipated.  It 
was  supposed  that  these  luminous  patches  which  power- 
ful telescopes  proved  to  consist  of  enormous  numbers 
of  stars,  were  remote  sidereal  sj^stems  similar  to  our  own. 
Of  course  under  these  circumstances  I  was  prompted  to 
look  into  the  evidence,  and  was  soon  convinced  that  the 
reasoning  assigned  for  this  conclusion  was  vicious.  This 
led  to  the  essay  on  "  Recent  Astronomy  and  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis,"  published  in  the  Westminster  Review  for 
July,  1858.  It  contained  proofs  that  the  current  con- 
clusion was  untrue,  and  that  these  clusters  of  stars  form 
parts  of  our  own  sidereal  system.  This  has  since  become 
an  accepted  doctrine.  The  invalidity  of  the  reason  for 
rejecting  the  nebular  hypothesis  at  large  having  been 
shown,  there  followed  an  exposition  of  the  reasons  for 
believing  in  the  nebular  genesis  of  the  solar  system.  Ad- 
ditional reasons  of  significance  were  assigned.  One  of 
them  was  that  according  to  the  ratio  between  centrifugal 
force  and  gravity  in  each  planet  is  the  greater  or  smaller 
number  of  satellites  it  possesses.  Another  was  that  to 
variations  in  this  ratio,  unlike  in  each  planet,  are 
ascribable  the  different  specific  gravities  of  the  planets. 
With  acceptance  of  the  hypothesis  of  Olbers  respecting 
the  missing  planet,  went  the  conclusion  that  the  celestial 
bodies  are  neither  solid  nor  liquid  all  through;  but  that 
the  interior  of  each  consists  of  gases  reduced  by  pressure 
to  the  density  of  liquids.  It  had  been  shown  that  gases 
may  be  compressed  to  that  degree  of  density  without 
liquefying ;  and  since  then  the  experiments  of  Prof.  An- 
drews, proving  that  there  is  a  critical  temperature  above 
which  no  pressure,  producing  however  great  a  density, 
will  cause  liquefaction,  has  made  this  view  more  tenable 
than  it  at  first  appeared.  In  recent  years  it  has  been 
enunciated  afresh  in  Germany  by  Dr.  August  Ritter  in 
1882.  Of  course  the  conclusion  that  from  the  bursting 
of  a  planet  thus  constituted,  resulted  the  asteroids,  has 
gained  an  ever-increasing  support  from  the  ever-increas- 
330 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

ing  number  of  them  discovered;  for  it  is  manifest  that 
of  the  multitudinous  fragments  the  larger  would  be  rel- 
atively few,  and  that  with  successive  decreases  of  size 
would  go  increases  of  numbers :  an  inference  correspond- 
ing with  the  facts.  An  explanation  of  comets  and 
meteor-showers  was  also  afforded.  It  should  be  added 
that  I  ventured  to  dissent  from  the  theory  of  the  Sun 
held  by  Sir  John  Herschel,  that  the  photosphere  incloses 
a  dark  body,  rendered  visible  through  breaches  in  the 
photosphere  known  as  spots.  In  pursuance  of  the  view 
that  the  Sun  is  the  product  of  a  still-concentrating 
nebula,  the  temperature  of  which  is  too  high  to  permit 
solidification,  it  was  contended  that  the  photosphere  con- 
sists of  metallic  vapours  ever  rising  and  precipitating: 
a  view  soon  afterwards  verified  by  the  discoveries  of 
Kirchhoff  and  Bunsen.  An  extreme  illustration  of  that 
disregard  for  authority  characterising  me  was  thus 
shown;  for  the  then  current  view  respecting  the  nebulae, 
and  the  view  respecting  the  constitution  of  the  Sun,  had 
the  highest  warrant.  I  must  however,  in  candour,  add 
that  the  essay  contained  some  serious  mistakes — one  es- 
pecially concerning  the  distribution  of  comets  from 
which  I  thought  evidence  was  derivable.1 

The  ever-present  interest  in  the  idea  of  evolution  as 
extending  to  all  orders  of  phenomena,  prompted  other 
audacities  displayed  at  this  time.  One  of  them  was  a 
criticism  upon  Prof.  Owen's  Archetype  and  Homologies 
of  the  Vertebrate  Skeleton.'  It  was  published  in  the 
British  and  Foreign  Medico-Chirurgical  Review  for 
October,  1858,  and  afterwards  appended  to  the  second 
volume  of  the  Biology.2  Of  course  his  theory,  which 
was  a  modern  application  of  the  Platonic  theory  of 
Ideas,  conflicted  with  the  evolutionary  view  of  the  or- 
ganic world.  The  purpose  of  the  essay  was  two-fold — 
to  show  the  inconsistencies  of  his  reasoning,  and  to  show 


1  Supra,   chap,    xxvi.,    pp.    155-156. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  113. 

331 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

how,  by  mechanical  actions  and  reactions  between  organ- 
ism and  environment,  the  segmentation  of  the  vertebral 
column  might  be  produced. 

In  the  same  manner  was  to  be  accounted  for,  and  I 
may  add  excused,  the  audacity  shown  in  an  article  writ- 
ten in  1858  on  "  Illogical  Geology,"  in  which  certain 
views  of  Lyell,  Murchison,  and  Hugh  Miller  were  ad- 
versely criticised.1  The  pushing  of  evolutionary  inqui- 
ries in  all  directions  necessarily  brought  me  face  to  face 
with  geological  facts,  and  theories,  and  with  the  palaeon- 
tological  evidence  accompanying  them.  The  notion,  still 
at  that  time  generally  accepted  among  geologists,  that 
during  past  eras  there  had  occasionally  occurred  a  sweep- 
ing away  of  the  old  organic  types  and  the  creation  of  a 
new  set,  was  of  course  utterly  repugnant  to  me,  and  it 
became  needful  to  examine  the  reasonings  which  led  to 
such  a  conception.  It  was  shown  that  geological  evi- 
dence does  not  warrant  it. 

This  same  period  (1858-60)  gave  birth  to  several  other 
essays  pervaded  by  the  same  general  thoughts.  One  of 
them,  on  "  The  Law  of  Organic  Symmetry,"  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Revieiv  for  January, 
1859.2  As  already  said,  this  arose  from  an  observation 
I  made  during  my  excursion  with  Lewes  in  1851.  I  do 
not  remember  that  the  general  formula  of  Evolution 
was  referred  to  (I  have  not  got  the  essay  at  hand),  but 
the  interpretation  was  evolutionary.  The  transitions 
from  spherical  and  radial  symmetry  to  bilateral  sym- 
metry, and  in  some  cases  to  asymmetry,  were  shown  to 
illustrate  the  general  proposition  that  the  forms  of  parts 
are  determined  by  their  relations  to  surrounding  actions : 
growths  being  equal  where  the  incident  forces  are  equal 
and  unequal  where  the  incident  forces  are  unequal.  I 
should  remark,  however,  that  the  interpretation  was  in- 
complete in  so  far  that  it  recognised  inorganic  forces 
only — heat,  light,  gravitation,  etc. — and  did  not  recog- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  123;  Supra,  chap,  xxvi.,  pp.  155-156. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  113. 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

nise  any  organic  agency,  such  as  the  influence  of  insects 
in  developing  the  forms  of  flowers. 

A  criticism  of  Prof.  Bain 's  work  on  The  Emotions  and 
the  Will  was  written  at  this  time,  and  naturally  from 
the  evolution  point  of  view.  Especially  is  this  seen  in  a 
proposed  classification  of  mental  states,  which  is  said  to 
be  justified  "  whether  we  trace  mental  progression 
through  the  grades  of  the  animal  kingdom,  through  the 
grades  of  mankind,  or  through  the  stages  of  individual 
growth."1 

Then  came  the  essay  on  ' '  The  Social  Organism, " 2  in 
which  is  observable  the  growth  between  1850  and  1860: 
the  first  being  the  date  at  which,  in  Social  Statics,  there 
had  occurred  the  primary  recognition  of  the  analogy  be- 
tween an  individual  organism  and  a  social  organism. 
In  this  essay,  as  in  its  germ  ten  years  before,  the  funda- 
mental parallelism  recognised  is  in  that  mutual  depend- 
ence of  parts  which  both  display;  and  all  the  phenomena 
of  organisation,  individual  or  social,  are  regarded  as 
having  this  as  their  cause.  Any  one  who  refers  to  Social 
Statics  (pp.  452-^56,  original  edition;  pp.  264—267, 
revised  edition)  will  see  that  this  was  the  root-idea  and 
that  this  dominates  the  developed  idea.  He  will  also 
see  how  entirely  without  kinship  it  is  to  the  fanciful 
notions  of  Plato  and  of  Hobbes.  But  in  the  essay  on 
"  The  Social  Organism  "  the  general  conception  indi- 
cated in  Social  Statics,  while  developed  in  detail,  has 
also  become  affiliated  on  the  general  doctrine  of  Evolu- 
tion. In  the  first  place,  the  mutual  dependence  of  parts 
is  shown  to  involve  an  increasing  integration,  and  in  the 
second  place,  numerous  illustrations  which  society  fur- 
nishes are  summed  up  by  the  statement  that ' '  not  only  is 
all  progress  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  from  the  indefinite  to  the 
definite." 

And  now  came  the  actual  start.3    Ideas  which  had  be- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  125.      2  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  p.  124. 
8  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  ix.,  p.  131. 

333 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

come  fairly  definite  and  coherent  were  now  to  be  made 
quite  definite  while  being  elaborated  in  First  Principles. 

As  shown  by  the  original  programme,  I  had  from  the 
outset  seen  the  need  for  specifying  my  position  in  respect 
to  metaphysico-theological  beliefs.  If  all  things  were  to 
be  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  redistribution  of  matter 
and  motion,  I  must  guard  myself  against  ascription  of 
the  materialism  apparently  implied.  Along  with  such 
an  interpretation  must  go  the  admission,  or  rather  the 
assertion,  that  our  ideas  of  matter  and  motion  are  but 
symbols  of  that  which  transcends  the  possibilities  of 
knowledge :  and  that  hence,  any  explanation  of  the  order 
of  the  changes  which  the  Cosmos  exhibits,  still  leaves  un- 
explained the  nature  and  origin  of  them. 

Hence  came  to  be  thought  out  and  written  the  prelim- 
inary division  of  First  Principles — "  The  Unknowable." 
An  absurd  misconception  resulted.  While  this  was  sim- 
ply an  introduction  intended  to  exclude  misinterpreta- 
tions, it  was,  by  the  few  who  paid  any  attention  to  the 
book,  regarded  as  its  substance.  Having  inspected  the 
portico,  they  turned  their  backs  on  the  building!  The 
general  doctrine  of  a  universal  transformation,  conform- 
ing everywhere  to  the  same  laws,  was  passed  by  as  not 
calling  for  exposition  or  comment;  or,  if  recognised  at 
all,  was  supposed  to  be  a  sequence  of  Darwin's  doctrine 
of  "  natural  selection  "!  The  thought  of  the  muddle- 
headed  public  seems  to  have  been : — Both  are  evolution- 
ary; one  was  published  later  than  the  other;  therefore 
the  second  is  a  development  of  the  first.1 

The  second  division  of  First  Principles,  constituting 
its  essential  part,  is  mainly,  as  above  implied,  an  elabo- 
ration of  the  ideas  already  specified.  It  contains,  how- 
ever, three  further  ideas  of  cardinal  importance.  One  is 
the  process  of  "  Segregation  "  which,  though  indirectly 
implied  in  some  of  the  essays,  had  not  before  taken  shape 
as  a  necessary  part  of  Evolution.  A  second  concerned 

1  See  vol.  i..  chaps,  xv.,  p.  268,  xviii.,  p.  336:  Supra,  xxviii.,  p. 
211;  xxx.,  p.  286. 

334 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

the  final  stage.  I  have  a  dim  recollection  that,  referring 
to  the  general  process  of  transformation  set  forth  in 
' '  Progress :  its  Law  and  Cause, ' '  which  had  been  the 
topic  of  conversation  (during  an  afternoon  call  at  Hux- 
ley's), Tyndall  put  to  me  the  question — "  But  how  does 
it  all  end?"  or  some  question  to  that  effect.1  I  cannot 
now  remember  whether  the  answer  was  given  forthwith 
or  whether  it  came  only  after  reflection ;  but  my  impres- 
sion is  that  up  to  that  time  I  had  not  considered  what 
was  the  outcome  of  this  unceasing  change  to  a  state  ever 
more  heterogeneous  and  ever  more  definite.  It  needed 
only  to  ask  the  question,  however,  to  bring  the  inevitable 
answer,  and  the  chapter  on  ".Equilibration  "  was  the 
result.  And  then,  in  pursuance  of  the  s'ame  line  of 
thought,  embodying  itself  in  the  question — "  What  hap- 
pens after  equilibration  is  completed?  "  there  came  the 
reply,  "  Dissolution."  This  was  at  once  recognised  as 
complementary  to  Evolution,  and  similarly  universal. 

I  may  add  that  the  expositions  contained  in  the  suc- 
cessive chapters  of  the  second  division  of  First  Princi- 
ples, were  easier  to  write  than  at  first  appears.  Having 
in  each  case  got  hold  of  the  clue,  it  was  not  difficult  to 
follow  it  out  among  all  orders  of  phenomena.  Bearing 
the  generalisation  in  mind,  it  needed  only  to  turn  from 
this  side  to  that  side,  and  from  one  class  of  facts  to  an- 
other, to  find  everywhere  exemplifications. 

In  the  first  paragraph  of  the  Principles  of  Biology  may 
be  perceived  the  effect  of  bringing  a  general  view  to  the 
study  of  a  special  subject.  The  characterisation  of  or- 
ganic matter  is  obviously  determined  by  the  doctrine  con- 
tained in  First  Principles.  It  is  pointed  out  that  its  ele- 
ments present  two  marked  contrasts — carbon  extremely 
fixed,  hydrogen  very  volatile;  oxygen  extremely  active, 
nitrogen  very  inactive.  That  is,  the  components  are 
specially  heterogeneous ;  and  the  heterogeneity  of  the 
compound  is  increased  by  the  presence  of  phosphorus 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  ix.,  p.   135. 
335 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

and  sulphur.  To  this  peculiar  composition  is  ascribed 
that  great  instability  which  fits  organic  matter  for  those 
easy  and  perpetual  changes  implied  by  life ;  while  in  the 
fact  that  three  of  its  chief  components,  being  gaseous, 
severally  contain  in  their  combined  state  immense 
amounts  of  molecular  motion,  is  seen  that  constitution 
which  makes  it  a  source  of  visible  activities.  It  is  clear 
that,  in  the  absence  of  the  leading  truths  set  forth  in 
First  Principles,  organic  matter  would  not  have  been 
thus  conceived. 

There  is  also  exemplified,  before  the  close  of  the  chap- 
ter, the  effect  of  bringing  together  the  leading  concep- 
tions of  different  sciences.  Complete  knowledge  of  one 
science  is  by  many  urged  as  an  educational  ideal,  rather 
than  a  general  knowledge  of  several.  But  in  each  science 
progress  depends  on  ideas  which  the  other  sciences  fur- 
nish. Prof.  Graham's  all-important  investigations  re- 
specting the  colloid  and  crystalloid  forms  of  matter,  well 
exemplified  the  need  for  transcending  the  limits  of  pure 
chemistry  for  the  further  advance  of  chemistry.  The 
contrasts  he  draws  between  colloids  and  crystalloids — 
between  the  instability  of  the  one  and  the  stability  of  the 
other,  between  the  consequent  energia  of  the  former  and 
the  quiescence  of  the  latter,  have  important  implications 
of  many  kinds,  especially  biological.  But,  not  being 
guided  by  the  relevant  biological  ideas,  there  is  a  corol- 
lary which  he  did  not  reach.  Had  he  looked  at  the  vital 
changes  from  the  physiological  point  of  view,  and  ob- 
served that  while  the  wasted  tissues  are  continually  being 
rebuilt  the  waste-matters  have  continually  to  be  carried 
away;  he  would  have  seen  that  it  is  because  the  tissues 
are  formed  of  colloids  while  the  waste-matters  are  crystal- 
loids that  the  vital  processes  are  possible.  From  the 
small  molecular  mobility  of  the  large  colloid  molecules 
and  the  great  molecular  mobility  of  the  small  crystalloid 
molecules,  it  results  that  these  last  can  rapidly  diffuse 
through  the  first  and  escape  into  the  channels  which 
carry  them  out  of  the  body. 
336 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

Concerning  interpretations  contained  in  the  imme- 
diately following  chapters,  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  they 
are  dominated  by  the  thought  of  interpreting  vital  activi- 
ties in  terms  of  latent  motion  taken  in  and  visible  motion 
given  out — molecular  motion  in  food  and  molar  motion 
expended  through  muscles.  And  here  came  recognition 
of  the  part  played  by  nitrogen.  From  the  feebleness  of 
its  affinities  for  other  elements  it  results  that,  easily  libr 
crated  from  its  combinations  with  them,  it  becomes  a  con- 
stant cause  of  molecular  disturbance  and  vital  motions. 
This  interpretation  was  suggested  by  remembrance  of  the 
various  cases  in  which  nitrogenous  substances,  both  in- 
organic and  organic,  are  made  to  serve  artificially  as 
agents  initiating  changes — explosions,  fermentations,  etc. 

The  succeeding  division  of  the  work,  ' '  The  Inductions 
of  Biology, ' '  of  course  consists  mainly  of  expositions  of 
those  general  truths  currently  accepted  at  the  time  the 
work  was  written.  Presentation  of  these  in  a  relatively- 
coherent  form  was  the  natural  result  of  an  endeavour 
to  affiliate  them  on  the  general  principle  of  Evolution. 
In  each  chapter  there  are  indicated  the  relations  borne 
to  first  principles  by  the  truths  set  forth.  There  may 
be  noted,  however,  sundry  special  inferences  reached 
through  the  systematic  mode  of  contemplating  the  facts. 
Everywhere  arose  the  inquiry — What  are  the  physical 
terms  involved?  with  the  result  that  conclusions — true 
or  untrue  as  it  may  turn  out — were  set  down  which 
would  not  have  been  reached  had  not  this  question  been 
asked. 

The  chapter  on  "  Growth  "furnishes  a  good  example, 
and  furnishes,  too,  another  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which,  to  interpret  the  truths  of  a  special  science  the 
truths  of  more  general  sciences  have  to  be  brought  in 
aid.  The  amounts  and  limits  of  growth  exhibited  by  the 
different  classes  of  organisms,  plant  and  animal,  are  in- 
explicable by  one  who  limits  himself  to  biology  alone. 
Mathematics  and  physics  have  to  be  invoked — certain  re- 
lations between  masses  and  surfaces,  certain  relations  be- 
337 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

tween  proportional  sizes  and  proportional  strains,  cer- 
tain relations  between  the  genesis  of  energy  and  the 
tenacity  of  the  parts  which  expend  energy.  And  here  let 
me  exemplify  the  way  in  which  an  "interest  in  scientific 
inquiries  at  large,  may  bring  in,  from  a  remote  subject, 
the  solutions  of  certain  problems.  Some  time  between 
the  issue  of  the  first  edition  in  1864  and  the  recent  edition 
in  1898,  I  met  with  a  report  of  Mr.  Froude's  experi- 
ments made  to  determine  the  resistance  to  vessels  moving 
through  the  water.  The  surprising  result  was  that  the 
chief  resistance  is  not  due  to  continued  displacement  but 
to  "  skin  friction."  When  revising  the  chapter  on 
"  Growth  "  a  significant  corollary  hence  resulted.  It 
became  clear  that  by  growth  an  aquatic  animal  gains  in 
relative  speed :  since  the  increase  of  energy  going  along 
with  increase  of  mass  is  not  met  by  a  proportionate  in- 
crease of  resistance:  the  skin-friction  increases  at  a 
slower  rate  than  the  increase  of  energy.  Hence  great 
aquatic  animals  can  come  into  existence.  The  catching 
of  more  prey  needful  for  larger  growth  would  not  be 
possible  in  the  absence  of  this  relation  between  energy 
and  resistance. 

The  aid  which  one  science  furnishes  towards  solution 
of  the  problems  presented  by  another,  is  again  exempli- 
fied in  the  chapter  on  "  Adaptation."  The  processes 
of  modification  constituting  adaptation  of  organic  struc- 
tures, are  rendered  quite  comprehensible  by  reference  to 
the  analogous  social  processes. 

The  cardinal  idea  which  runs  through  the  chapters  on 
"  Genesis,"  "  Heredity,"  and  "  Variation,"  is,  as  shown 
in  §  66,  an  example  of  reasoning  a  priori — an  exceptional 
example,  for,  as  I  have  shown,  a  posteriori  conclusions 
have  habitually  preceded  the  a  priori  verifications.  The 
argument  is  that  the  specific  traits  of  organisms  cannot 
be  conveyed  by  the  morphological  units  or  cells,  nor  can 
they  be  conveyed  by  the  molecules  of  protein  substances 
into  which  these  are  chemically  resolvable:  these  being 
common  to  all  organisms.  There  appears  therefore  no 
338 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

alternative  but  to  assume  some  intermediate  units  con- 
veying the  specific  characters — physiological  units  as  I 
called  them,  or,  as  I  would  now  call  them,  constitutional 
units.  That  the  structure  of  each  organism  results  from 
the  organic  polarities  of  these  seems  implied  by  the  facts 
that  a  scale  from  a  Begonia  leaf,  or  a  fragment  of  a 
Polyp's  body,  begins  to  assume  the  typical  structure  of 
the  species ;  and  yet  it  seems  inconceivable  that  the  com- 
plex structures  of  organisms  of  advanced  types  can  be 
thus  produced.  A  more  feasible  conception  was  sug- 
gested in  the  final  edition  of  the  work;  and  here  again 
sociological  facts  aided  interpretation  of  biological  facts. 
For  evidence  was  given  that  beyond  the  tendency  of  a 
whole  aggregate  of  units  of  a  particular  kind  to  assume 
the  structure  peculiar  to  that  kind,  whether  a  society  or 
an  animal,  there  is  an  ability  of  the  units  in  each  locality 
to  form  themselves  into  a  structure  appropriate  to  that 
locality,  quite  independently  of  the  influence  of  the 
whole  aggregate.  Recent  experimental  evidence  (1896-7) 
here  came  in  verification. 

Passing  over  minor  ideas  in  Part  III.,  the  first  to  be 
named  is,  that  the  process  of  natural  selection  becomes 
incapable  of  producing  specific  adaptations  as  fast  as 
there  arise  complex  animals  in  which  many  organs  co- 
operate to  achieve  a  single  end.  The  great  Irish  elk  with 
its  enormous  horns  is  instanced;  and  the  argument  is 
that  growth  of  such  horns  is  useless  for  offence  and  de- 
fence without  an  accompanying  adjustment  of  numerous 
bones  and  muscles  concerned  in  wielding  them;  that  ap- 
propriate variations  cannot  be  assumed  to  take  place 
simultaneously  in  all  the  co-operating  parts;  and  that 
without  simultaneous  variations  in  them,  increase  in  the 
size  of  the  horns  must  be  injurious.  After  this,  the  thing 
of  chief  importance  in  this  division  is  the  interpretation 
of  the  two  essential  factors  of  organic  evolution — Adap- 
tation and  Natural  Selection — in  physical  terms.  And 
here  I  come  upon  a  fact  which  obliges  me  to  qualify  the 
description  of  my  method  of  thinking,  namely,  allowing 
339 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

some  germ  of  thought  accidentally  occurring,  to  grow  by 
accretions  until  it  became  a  fully-developed  hypothesis. 
I  was  now  met  by  a  problem  which  demanded  solution. 
Adaptation  is  not  a  process  known  to  physical  science; 
and  the  hypothesis  of  Natural  Selection  is  in  both  of  its 
terms  foreign  to  that  class  of  ideas  which  physics  formu- 
lates. How,  then,  are  adaptation  and  natural  selection 
to  be  conceived  as  caused  by  that  universal  play  of  forces 
which  universal  evolution  postulates?  At  first  the  in- 
terpretation seemed  hopeless;  but  when  the  life  of  an 
organism  was  regarded  as  a  combination  of  functions 
forming  a  moving  equilibrium  in  presence  of  outer  ac- 
tions, an  interpretation  presented  itself.  All  the  phe- 
nomena fell  into  place  as  attendant  on  the  maintenance  of 
moving  equilibria  and  the  overthrow  of  them.  It  was 
in  thus  studying  the  facts  that  the  expression  "  survival 
of  the  fittest  ' '  emerged ;  for  this  is,  as  the  context  shows, 
as  direct  a  statement  as  ordinary  language  permits  of 
the  physical  actions  and  reactions  concerned.  Here 
again  general  truths  served  as  interpreters  of  special 
ones. 

Some  months  before  completion  of  the  first  volume  of 
the  Principles  of  Biology,  there  occurred  a  digression 
which  had  important  results.  More  than  once  after  writ- 
ing the  "  Genesis  of  Science,"  in  which  M.  Comte's 
classification  of  the  sciences  was  rejected,  I  had  en- 
deavoured to  make  a  valid  classification,  and  had  failed. 
Only  now,  early  in  1 864,  did  I  hit  upon  the  right  mode  of 
regarding  the  facts:  recognising  that  the  primary  basis 
of  a  classification  is  a  division  into  Abstract,  Abstract- 
Concrete,  and  Concrete,  dealing  respectively  with  the 
forms,  the  factors,  and  the  products.1  The  conclusions 
arrived  at  seemed  important  enough  to  justify  suspension 
of  other  work  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  a  brochure 
setting  them  forth  in  detail.  Incidentally  there  came  a 
result  of  greater  importance.  While  trying  to  arrange 
the  concrete  sciences,  and  asking  what  most  general  truth 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  x.,  p.  147. 
340 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

there  is  which  must  take  precedence  of  all  those  truths 
presented  by  astronomy,  geology,  biology,  etc.,  I  saw  that 
it  must  be  a  truth  concerning  the  unceasing  redistribu- 
tion of  matter  and  motion  which  all  concrete  things  ex- 
hibit. This  truth  was  that  integration  of  matter  and 
dissipation  of  contained  motion  are  concomitant  changes, 
and  that  the  converse  concomitant  changes  are  increase 
of  contained  motion  and  dissipation  of  matter :  the  first 
resulting  in  Evolution  and  the  last  in  Dissolution.  In 
this  way  I  was  suddenly  made  aware  that  in  setting  forth 
the  process  of  Evolution  in  First  Principles,  I  had  fol- 
lowed a  wrong  order;  since  I  had  represented  the  in- 
crease of  heterogeneity  as  the  primary  process,  and  in- 
tegration as  a  secondary  process.  Forthwith  I  decided 
to  reorganise  First  Principles  as  soon  as  the  Principles 
of  Biology  was  completed.  And  here  I  note  the  second 
case  in  which  the  writings  of  M.  Comte  had  an  all- 
important  influence ;  but,  as  in  the  preceding  case,  an 
influence  opposite  in  kind  to  that  supposed.  Had  I  not 
made  acquaintance  with  his  views  concerning  the  devel- 
opment of  the  sciences ;  had  I  not  been  thus  led  to  reject 
his  classification ;  had  I  not  been,  consequently,  prompted 
to  seek  another  classification;  I  should  probably  never 
have  reached  the  above  conception,  and  the  doctrine  set 
forth  in  First  Principles  would  have  retained  that  very 
imperfect  form  originally  given  to  it. 

For  completion  of  the  narrative,  I  must  add  that  about 
this  time  was  written  an  essay  on  "  The  Constitution 
of  the  Sun,"  containing,  among  other  things,  the  hy- 
pothesis that  solar  spots  result  from  the  condensation  of 
metallic  vapours  in  the  rarefied  interiors  of  cyclones; 
and  must  add  that  about  the  same  time  was  written  an 
essay  under  the  title  "  What  is  Electricity?  "  I  name 
these  merely  to  show  the  excursiveness  still  displayed.1 

Returning  to  the  Principles  of  Biology,  the  first  re- 
mark to  be  made  is  that  the  interpretation  of  the  special 

aVol.  i.,  chap,  x.,  p.  153;  Supra,  chap,  xxvi.,  pp.  159-164. 
341 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

by  the  aid  of  the  general,  is  shown  throughout  Vol.  II. 
in  a  conspicuous  manner ;  for  in  this  there  begins  the  de- 
ductive explanation  of  biological  phenomena  at  large  in 
terms  of  the  formula  of  Evolution. 

"  Morphological  Development  "  sets  out  by  regarding 
the  facts  plants  and  animals  display  as  primarily  phe- 
nomena of  integration.  There  is  growth  by  simple  accu- 
mulation of  primary  aggregates  (cells  or  protoplasts)  ; 
there  is  growth  by  union  of  groups  of  these  into  second- 
ary aggregates;  and  then  again  by  union  of  groups  of 
groups  into  tertiary  aggregates.  The  rise  of  the  two" 
largest  divisions  of  the  plant  world  is  dealt  with  from 
this  point  of  view.  From  the  needs  of  the  interpreta- 
tion there  resulted  a  speculation  respecting  the  origin  of 
Endogens  and  Exogens  (Monocotyledons  and  Dicotyle- 
dons) .  For  in  tracing  out  the  origin  of  plant  aggregates 
of  the  third  order,  produced  by  integration  of  those  of 
the  second  order  (each  in  its  separate  form  a  thallus  or 
frond),  there  arose  the  question — By  what  different 
methods  of  integration  did  there  arise  these  two  different 
types  of  vegetal  organisation?  The  interpretation  im- 
plies a  rejection  of  Schleiden's  doctrine,  which  regards 
the  shoot  or  axial  organ  as  primary,  and  the  leaf  or 
foliar  organ  as  secondary;  for  it  implies  that  the  foliar 
organ  is  the  homologue  of  a  primitive  separate  frond 
or  thallus,  which  of  course  came  first  in  order  of  evolu- 
tion. I  may  add  that  though  in  most  cases  the  ma- 
terials for  my  arguments  were  ready  to  hand  in  works 
on  Biology,  it  was  in  some  cases  otherwise;  and  here  is 
an  instance.  Observations  pursued  for  some  years 
brought  abundant  support  to  the  inference  that  axial  or- 
gans may,  under  conditions  of  excessive  nutrition,  de- 
velop out  of  foliar  organs.  "  The  Morphological  Com- 
position of  Animals  "  was  dealt  with  in  like  manner. 
Cells,  aggregates  of  cells,  and  unions  of  these  aggregates 
into  still  higher  ones,  were  the  stages:  the  various  types 
of  Protozoa  falling  within  the  first  group,  Porifera  and 
simple  Coelenterates  coming  within  the  second  group, 
342 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

and  the  compound  coelenterate  animals,  fixed  and  mov- 
ing, as  well  as  Tunicata,  coming  within  the  third  group. 
How  far  this  compounding  of  groups  proceeds  in  the 
animal  kingdom  was  a  question  which  arose.  The  con- 
clusion drawn  was  that  while  the  Vert  errata  are  aggre- 
gates of  the  second  order,  annulose  creatures  (Arthro- 
pods and  Annelids)  are  aggregates  of  the  third  order: 
each  segment  being  the  homologue  of  what  was  originally 
an  independent  organism.  This  speculation  was,  I  sup- 
posed, peculiar  to  myself;  but  I  recently  found  that  it 
had  two  years  earlier  been  propounded  by  M.  Lacaze 
Duthiers.  There  are  many  reasons  for  and  against  it, 
but  true  or  untrue,  it  is  manifestly  a  sequence  of  the 
mode  of  regarding  organic  progress  as  exhibiting  inte- 
gration. 

In  conformity  with  the  general  order  of  evolution,  as 
set  forth  in  First  Principles,  there  came  next  the  produc- 
tion of  structural  differences:  advance  in  integration  be- 
ing accompanied  by  advance  in  heterogeneity.  And  here 
arose  the  occasion  for  carrying  out  in  new  directions  the 
speculation  initiated  in  1851,  and  subsequently  set  forth 
in  "  The  Law  of  Organic  Symmetry."  The  general 
thesis  that  the  parts  of  an  organism  become  unlike  in 
form  in  proportion  to  their  exposure  to  unlike  conditions, 
was  illustrated  throughout:  first  in  the  shapes  of  plants 
as  wholes,  then  in  the  shapes  of  branches,  then  in  the 
shapes  of  leaves,  then  in  the  shapes  of  flowers,  and  finally 
in  the  shapes  of  vegetal  cells.  There  followed  a  like 
series  of  interpretations  of  animal  forms — general,  and 
then  more  and  more  special.  In  this  exposition  was  in- 
corporated that  theory  of  vertebrate  structure  indicated 
in  1858,  as  an  alternative  to  the  theory  of  Professor 
Owen — the  theory,  namely,  that  vertebra  have  arisen 
from  the  mechanical  actions  and  reactions  to  which  the 
original  undivided  axis  was  exposed  by  lateral  undula- 
tions ;  these  becoming  as  the  vertebrate  animal  developed, 
more  and  more  energetic,  at  the  same  time  that  the  axis 
became  by  its  reactions  more  and  more  indurated  at  the 
343 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

points  of  muscular  insertion ;  segmentation  being  a  neces- 
sary compromise  between  flexibility  and  stability. 

In  the  next  division,  "  Physiological  Development," 
there  is  again  shown  the  way  in  which  the  interpreta- 
tions in  general  and  in  detail  are  dominated  by  the 
general  formula  of  Evolution :  more  markedly  shown,  be- 
cause, while  Morphology  had  been  studied  from  the  evo- 
lution point  of  view,  Physiology  had  been  scarcely  at  all 
thus  studied.  As  currently  understood,  Physiology  was 
concerned  only  with  the  single  and  combined  functions 
of  organs,  and  scarcely  at  all  considered  the  question  how 
functions  have  arisen.  Thus  a  new  field  had  to  be  ex- 
plored, and  the  exploration  was  guided  by  the  concep- 
tions set  forth  in  First  Principles.  The  general  question 
was  "  how  heterogeneities  of  action  have  progressed 
along  with  heterogeneities  of  structure  ";  and  it  was 
held  that  to  the  various  problems  presented  the  "  an- 
swers must  be  given  in  terms  of  incident  forces." 

Here  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution  raised  a  new  set  of 
questions,  and  the  raising  of  them  almost  of  itself 
prompted  the  answers.  "  Intercourse  between  each  part 
and  the  particular  conditions  to  which  it  is  exposed  " 
was  shown  "to  be  the  origin  of  physiological  develop- 
ment." Throughout  successive  chapters,  proof  was 
given  that  physiological  differentiations  exemplify  "  the 
inevitable  lapse  of  the  more  homogeneous  into  the  less 
homogeneous  ";  and  evidence  that  the  changes  result 
from  "  the  necessary  exposure  of  their  component  parts 
to  actions  unlike  in  kind  or  quantity  "  was  furnished  by 
the  order  in  which  the  differences  appear.  It  was  con- 
tended, further,  that  "  Physiological  development  has  all 
along  been  aided  by  the  multiplication  of  effects  ":  the 
differentiated  parts  acting  and  reacting  on  one  another 
with  increasing  complexity.  Then  came  the  inquiry — 
How  does  there  arise  that  mutual  dependence  of  parts 
which  is  the  necessary  concomitant  of  the  physiological 
division  of  labour?  Physiological  integration  accom- 
344 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

panics  physiological  differentiation,  and  the  question  was 
— "  What  causes  the  integration  to  advance  pari  passu 
with  the  differentiation?  "  a  question  to  the  solution  of 
which  the  analogy  between  the  individual  organism  and 
the  social  organism  was  once  more  brought  in  aid.  Then, 
lastly,  came  to  be  treated  the  phenomena  of  physiological 
equilibration,  as  it  establishes  itself  more  and  more 
completely  in  proportion  as  organic  evolution  becomes 
higher:  the  result  of  the  play  of  organic  forces  being 
such  as  continually  to  re-establish  a  disturbed  balance 
between  outer  and  inner  actions,  and  to  establish  a  new 
balance  where  outer  actions  of  a  permanent  kind  arise. 

I  indicate  these  chief  heads  of  the  argument  simply 
to  show  how  the  filiation  of  ideas  was  here  determined 
by  the  need  for  presenting  the  facts  of  physiological  de- 
velopment in  terms  of  evolution  at  large.  General  truths 
again  served  as  keys  to  the  more  special  truths,  and 
caused  these  to  fall  into  coherent  order. 

Something  must  be  said  respecting  an  inquiry  which 
arose  while  writing  this  division.  The  genesis  of  the  cir- 
culation in  plants  was  one  of  the  topics  to  be  dealt  with  • 
and  I  found  very  little  information  ready  to  my  hand. 
Either  I  must  treat  the  topic  in  a  cursory  manner  or 
must  investigate  it  for  myself,  and  this  last  alternative 
I  chose.  In  pursuance  of  the  idea  dominant  throughout, 
that  the  differentiations  of  parts  are  due  to  differences 
in  the  incident  forces,  I  inferred  that,  initiated  by  slight 
differences  of  pressure  in  certain  directions,  the  produced 
currents  themselves  gradually  formed  channels  and  so 
prepared  the  way  for  the  differentiated  structures.  The 
current  doctrine  was  that  circulation  is  through  the  wood ; 
but  there  seemed  to  have  been  ignored  the  question — 
What  happens  in  plants  having  no  woody  tissue,  and  in 
those  young  plants  and  young  parts  of  plants  in  which 
woody  tissue  has  not  yet  been  formed?  Examination 
proved  that  in  such  places  the  spiral,  fenestrated,  or  an- 
nular vessels  are  the  sap-carriers,  and  that  these  fall  out 
of  use  as  fast  as  the  woody  tissue  arises.  The  investigation 
345 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

led  to  the  discovery  of  absorbent  organs  in  certain  leaves 
and  roots  which  had  not  been  seen  because  the  sections  of 
the  leaves  had  not  been  made  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
disclose  them.  By  compulsion  I  was  in  this  case  led 
into  experimental  research;  and  I  do  not  remember  any 
other  case  in  which  an  experimental  research  was  under- 
taken.1 

The  remaining  part  of  the  Principles  of  Biology,  en- 
titled "  Laws  of  Multiplication,"  need  not  detain  us.  It 
is  an  amplified  and  elaborated  statement  of  the  hypothe- 
sis which  was  set  forth  pretty  fully  in  "  The  Theory 
of  Population  deduced  from  the  General  Law  of  Animal 
Fertility,"  published  in  1852.  In  this  Part  VI.  of  the 
Biology  many  additional  illustrations,  sundry  develop- 
ments, and  various  qualifications,  are  set  forth.  These 
supplementary  ideas  it  is  needless  here  to  specify. 

I  am  often  astonished  at  the  large  results  which  grow 
from  small  causes.  When  drawing  up  the  programme 
of  the  ' '  System  of  Philosophy, "  as  it  was  at  first  called, 
and  laying  out  the  plan  of  each  work,  it  occurred  to  me 
that,  before  beginning  deductive  interpretations  in  pur- 
suance of  the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  it  would  be  needful 
to  set  down  the  truths  which  had  been,  or  which  might 
be,  reached  by  simple  induction.  And  then  it  occurred 
to  me  that,  before  this  statement  of  inductions,  it  would 
be  needful  in  each  case  to  specify  the  data.  This  concep- 
tion determined  in  large  part  the  arrangement  followed. 
In  each  science  the  first  and  second  divisions  set  forth 
respectively  the  data  and  the  inductions,  on  which  the 
evolutionary  interpretations  might  stand. 

This  method  of  procedure  had  the  effect  of  drawing 
my  attention  to  truths,  some  already  current  and  some 
not  current,  which  would  have  been  passed  over  un- 
specified or  unrecognised,  had  it  not  been  for  the  neces- 
sity of  filling  up  these  divisions  of  the  skeleton  plan. 
Especially  was  this  cause  influential  in  giving  to  the 
Principles  of  Psychology  an  extended  development. 

»  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  x.,  pp.  162,    163. 
346 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

What  were  the  data?  What  were  the  inductions?  were 
questions  to  be  answered;  and  search  for  answers  led  to 
some  significant  results. 

The  science  of  Life  at  large  had  to  supply  the  data  to 
the  science  of  Mental  Life.  Setting  out  from  the 
biological  view,  it  was  needful  to  regard  the  nervous 
system  as  the  initiator  of  motion,  and  to  trace  up  its  de- 
velopment in  relation  to  the  quantity  of  the  motion  and 
the  heterogeneity  of  the  motion.  It  was  also  needful  to 
formulate  such  truths  of  structure  as  are  common  to  all 
types  of  nervous  systems.  Beginning  with  the  simplest 
structure,  in  which  there  is  seen  nothing  more  than  an 
afferent  nerve,  a  ganglion,  and  an  efferent  nerve,  it  was 
contended  that  the  nervous  arc  formed  by  the  fibre  carry- 
ing a  stimulus,  the  ganglion  corpuscles  to  which  it  went, 
and  the  fibre  running  to  a  part  to  be  excited,  constituted 
the  unit  of  composition  out  of  which  nervous  systems 
are  built — a  unit  of  composition  with  which,  in  develop- 
ing types,  there  is  joined  a  fibre  passing  from  the  pri- 
mary simple  ganglion  to  a  higher  and  more  complex  one. 
The  thesis  was  that,  throughout  their  extremely  varied 
types,  nervous  systems  are  formed  by  compoundirg  and 
re-compounding  this  unit  in  multitudinous  ways. 

Not  particularising  others  of  the  Data  set  down,  and 
passing  at  once  to  the  Inductions,  the  first  to  be  named 
concerns  the  substance  of  mind.  After  showing  that  of 
this  in  its  ultimate  nature  we  can  know  nothing,  it  was 
contended  that  of  its  proximate  nature  we  may  know 
something.  Setting  out  from  our  knowledge  of  the  sen- 
sation of  sound,  which  is  made  up  of  minute  nervous 
shocks  rapidly  recurring,  there  was  ventured  the  hypoth- 
esis that  sensations  of  all  kinds,  and  by  implication 
higher  feelings  of  all  kinds,  result  from  the  compound- 
ing and  re-compounding  in  infinitely  varied  ways  of 
minute  nervous  shocks,  akin  in  their  ultimate  natures.1 

1  The  instalment  of  the  Principles  of  Psychology  containing 
this  view  was  issued  in  Oct.,  1868.  M.  Taine,  in  Vol.  I.  of  De 
I 'Intelligence •,  propounded  a  like  view  in  1870. 

347 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

So  that  possibly  there  is  an  ultimate  element  of  mind 
which,  like  some  ultimate  element  of  matter,  is,  by  enter- 
ing into  more  and  more  complex  aggregates  and  unions 
of  aggregates,  capable  of  generating  the  multitudinous 
kinds  of  consciousness,  as  the  supposed  ultimate  element 
of  matter,  by  its  endless  ways  and  degrees  of  compound- 
ing, produces  the  various  substances  we  know.  There  is 
thus  hypothetically  illustrated  in  another  sphere  the 
general  doctrine  of  Evolution,  since  the  supposed  proc- 
ess implies  increasing  integration  and  increasing  hetero- 
geneity. 

The  question  next  to  be  dealt  with  was — What  are 
the  general  truths  respecting  our  mental  states  which 
admit  of  being  set  down  as  simple  inductions,  based  upon 
introspection,  and  not  involving  any  hypothesis  respect- 
ing origin.  Writers  on  Psychology  have  mostly  had  in 
view  not  structural  traits  but  functional  traits.  We  see 
this  in  the  grouping  by  Aquinas  into  Memory,  Reason, 
Conscience;  by  Reid  into  Memory,  Conception,  Judg- 
ment, Reasoning;  by  Dugald  Stewart  into  Attention, 
Conception,  Abstraction,  Memory,  Imagination,  Reason- 
ing. These  various  heads  in  the  main  connote  kinds  and 
degrees  of  action.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  first  thing 
must  be  to  contemplate  the  aggregate  of  mental  states, 
and  group  them  according  to  their  characters  and  be- 
haviours. Examination  proved  that  there  are  marked 
structural  distinctions  in  consciousness,  and  that  these 
are  related  to  structural  distinctions  in  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. The  broadest  classification  is  into  feelings  and  rela- 
tions between  feelings,  of  which  the  first  are  mental  states 
existing  for  appreciable  times,  while  the  last  exist  but  mo- 
mentarily; and  it  was  inferred  that  while  the  feelings 
are  correlated  with  changes  in  the  nerve-cells,  the  rela- 
tions are  correlated  with  discharges  along  nerve-fibres. 
Examination  proved  that  feelings  themselves  are  first 
of  all  divisible  into  centrally-initiated  or  emotions,  and 
peripherally-initiated  or  sensations.  Among  the  pe- 
ripherally-initiated, the  broadest  division  is  into  those 
348 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

initiated  on  the  outer  surface  and  those  initiated  in  the 
interior;  and  it  was  of  course  recognised  that  all  these 
kinds  have  their  vivid  or  original  forms  and  their  faint 
or  revived  forms.  These  groups  of  feelings  differ  greatly 
in  definiteness — that  is,  in  the  distinctness  with  which 
they  are  mutually  limited :  the  feelings  derived  from  the 
highest  senses  being  mutually  limited  in  the  sharpest 
way,  and  the  mutual  limitation  becoming  vague  in  pro- 
portion as  the  feelings  are  internally  generated,  and 
have  not  sense-organs  divided  into  numerous  sensitive 
elements.  Sharpness  of  mutual  limitation  was  discovered 
to  be  connected  with  ability  to  cohere — readiness  to  be 
associated:  where  there  is  vague  mutual  limitation  there 
is  incoherence.  Another  result  reached  was  that  feelings 
which  are  definitely  limited  by  others  and  which,  as  a 
concomitant,  readily  cohere,  are  also  feelings  which  can 
be  called  into  consciousness  with  facility;  while  feelings 
of  the  lower  kinds,  as  those  initiated  internally,  can  be 
revived  with  difficulty  and,  consequently,  take  but  small 
parts  in  intellectual  operations.  Once  more  it  was  found 
that  these  truths  which  hold  of  feelings  hold  also  of  the 
relations  among  them.  Here  as  elsewhere  it  was  found 
that  progress  in  mental  organisation,  as  in  nervous  or- 
ganisation, is  presentable  in  terms  of  Evolution;  for  in 
rising  to  the  higher  types  of  mental  states  characterised 
by  definiteness,  coherence,  and  revivability,  we  progress 
in  integration  and  heterogeneity. 

Concerning  the  parts  entitled  "  General  Synthesis  " 
and  "  Special  Synthesis,"  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  much 
here,  since  they  repeat  with  small  alterations,  mainly 
verbal,  the  corresponding  parts  in  the  first  edition.  The 
only  significant  fact  is  that  to  §  189  I  have  added  a  note 
saying  that  "  Had  Mr.  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  been 
published  before  I  wrote  this  paragraph,  I  should,  no 
doubt,  have  so  qualified  my  words  as  to  recognise  '  selec- 
tion,' natural  or  artificial,  as  a  factor."  At  the  time  the 
first  edition  was  written  the  only  factor  I  recognised  was 
the  inheritance  of  functionally-produced  changes;  but 
349 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Mr.  Darwin's  work  made  it  clear  to  me  that  there  is  an- 
other factor  of  importance  in  mental  evolution  as  in 
bodily  evolution.  While  holding  that  throughout  all 
higher  stages  of  mental  development  the  supreme  factor 
has  been  the  effect  of  habit,  I  believe  that  in  producing 
the  lowest  instincts  natural  selection  has  been  the  chief, 
if  not  the  sole,  factor.  This  modification  of  belief,  how- 
ever, affects  but  slightly  the  argument  running  through 
these  two  parts. 

Part  V.  is  the  one  referred  to  in  the  preface  to  the 
first  edition  as,  for  the  time  being,  omitted.  It  sets  forth 
and  elaborates  the  idea,  reached  some  time  before  the 
programme  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  was  drawn  up, 
that  the  structures  of  nervous  systems  are  to  be  inter- 
preted as  consequent  upon  the  general  law  that  motion 
follows  the  line  of  least  resistance.  The  first  chapter  de- 
scribes the  genesis  of  nerves  in  pursuance  of  this  hypoth- 
esis, and  subsequent  chapters  carry  it  out  in  the  de- 
scription of  simple  and  compound  nervous  systems. 

Concerning  the  filiation  of  ideas  exemplified  in  Parts 
VI.  and  VII.  of  the  Principles  of  Psychology,  there  is 
not  much  to  say  here.  The  first  of  them  reappears  with 
no  considerable  change;  and  the  second  of  them,  though 
greatly  developed,  is  chiefly  an  elaboration  of  the  argu- 
ment set  forth  in  Part  I.  of  the  first  edition — an  elabora- 
tion which,  though  it  contains  many  ideas  not  contained 
in  the  first,  does  not  call  for  detailed  notice. 

In  Part  IX.,  "  Corollaries,"  there  is  yielded  another 
exception  to  what  I  supposed  to  be  the  uniform  process 
with  me — gradual  development  of  a  thought  from  a 
germ ;  for  here  I  had  forthwith  to  solve  the  questions  put 
before  me  as  best  I  might.  After  dealing  with  general 
psychology  it  became  requisite  to  enter  upon  the  special 
psychology  of  Man  in  preparation  for  Sociology.  Cer- 
tain traits  of  human  nature  are  presupposed  by  the 
ability  to  live  in  the  associated  state,  and  there  came 
the  questions — What  are  these?  and,  How  are  they 
evolved  ?  One  only  of  the  leading  ideas  in  this  part  need 
350 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

here  be  named  as  illustrating  the  course  of  filiation.  Be- 
fore there  can  be  social  co-operation  there  must  be  es- 
tablished in  Men  a  liking,  such  as  we  see  in  gregarious 
animals,  for  living  more  or  less  in  presence  of  one  an- 
other. And  there  must  be  developed  in  them,  as  in  gre- 
garious creatures,  but  in  a  far  higher  degree,  the  faculty 
of  sympathy — the  aptitude  for  participating  in  the  feel- 
ings exhibited  by  others.  Development  of  the  required 
type  of  emotional  nature  was  shown  to  be  a  part  of  the 
general  process  of  mental  evolution.  The  discipline  of 
social  life,  beginning  in  feeble  ways,  itself  little  by  little 
developed  the  capacities  for  carrying  on  social  co-opera- 
tion: there  was  gradual  evolution  here  as  everywhere 
else. 

The  filiation  of  ideas  as  exhibited  in  the  Principles  of 
Sociology,  cannot  be  understood  without  knowledge  of 
certain  acts  and  incidents  which  occurred  while  the  work 
on  the  Principles  of  Psychology  was  in  course  of  execu- 
tion. Recognising  how  large  an  undertaking  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology  would  be,  how  vast  the  required  as- 
semblage of  materials,  and  how  impossible  it  would  be 
for  me  to  gather  them,  I  decided  as  far  back  as  1867  to 
obtain  help.  I  had  to  study  the  leading  types  of  societies, 
from  the  savage  to  the  most  civilised;  and  I  required 
something  like  a  comprehensive  account  of  the  institu- 
tions of  each.  The  only  course  was  that  of  engaging  one 
or  more  assistants  who  should,  under  guidance,  collect 
facts  for  me.  My  first  step  was  to  scheme  an  arrange- 
ment in  which  they  should  be  so  presented  that  while 
their  relations  of  co-existence  and  succession  were  easily 
recognised,  they  should  be  so  presented  that  those  of 
each  kind  could  be  readily  found  when  required.  In  the 
tables  drawn  up  the  primary  division  of  social  phe- 
nomena is  into  Structural  and  Functional,  and  the  main 
divisions  under  these  are  Regulative  and  Operative.  A 
glance  will  show  that  ranged  under  these  main  and  sub- 
ordinate groups,  the  heterogeneous  masses  of  facts  so- 
351 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

cieties  exhibit,  disorderly  as  they  at  first  seem,  are  made 
intelligible,  and  the  comparing  and  generalising  of  them 
easy.  Sundry  modifications  of  beliefs  at  once  resulted 
from  thus  facilitating  induction. 

The  work  on  The  Study  of  Sociology  formed  no  part 
of  the  programme  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy.1  But, 
rather  fortunately,  it  was  written  before  the  Principles 
of  Sociology  was  commenced ;  and,  while  serving  to  pre- 
pare the  public,  was  also  a  good  discipline  for  me.  The 
cultured  classes  and  their  leaders — Carlyle,  Froude, 
Kingsley,  etc. — were  in  utter  darkness  about  the  matter. 
They  alleged  the  impossibility  of  a  ' '  science  of  history, ' ' 
and  were  without  any  conception  that  there  had  been 
going  on  the  evolution  of  social  structures,  not  made  or 
dreamed  of  by  kings  and  statesmen,  or  recognised  by  his- 
torians. Two  chapters  "  Is  there  a  Social  Science?"  and 
"  The  Nature  of  the  Social  Science,"  explained  that 
there  is  a  distinction  between  history  and  the  science  of 
sociology  like  that  between  a  man's  biography  and  the 
structure  of  his  body. 

Evidence  was  given  at  this  time  of  continued  natural 
growth  from  a  germ  dating  far  back.  In  the  compari- 
son between  a  society  and  an  organism,  made  in  Social 
Statics,  where  the  mutual  dependence  of  parts  common 
to  both  and  the  progress  in  both  from  a  primitive  state 
of  no  dependence  to  a  state  of  great  dependence,  were 
pointed  out,  there  was  no  recognition  of  any  fundamental 
division  in  the  classes  of  parts  or  classes  of  functions. 
But  "  The  Social  Organism,"  published  ten  years  later, 
exhibited  the  analogy  between  the  expending  organs  of 
the  two  and  between  the  sustaining  organs  of  the  two. 
And  now  this  conception  had  become  more  definite.  In 
an  essay  on  "  Specialised  Administration  "  published  in 
December,  1871,  it  was  shown  that  the  militant  struc- 
tures and  the  industrial  structures,  while  growing  more 
distinguished  as  expending  structures  and  sustaining 

1  See  vol.  i.,  chap,  xiii.,  p.  211. 
352 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

structures,  grow  more  distinguished  also  by  the  different 
forms  of  government  proper  to  them:  the  one  being 
under  a  despotic  central  control  needful  to  produce  effi- 
cient joint  action,  and  the  other  being  controlled  by  the 
mutual  influences  of  the  co-operating  parts  and  not,  in 
respect  of  their  functions,  subject  to  central  direction. 
At  the  same  time  it  was  shown  that  individual  organisms 
of  high  types  furnish  a  parallel  to  this  contrast  in  the 
contrast  between  the  cerebro-spinal  nervous  system  and 
the  visceral  nervous  system.  And  here,  more  than  be- 
fore,  was  emphasised  the  truth  that  from  the  beginning 
war  has  been  the  cause  of  the  development  of  centralised 
governmental  structures,  which  become  coercive  in  pro- 
portion as  war  is  the  dominant  social  activity;  while 
growth  of  that  decentralised  co-operation  characterising 
sustaining  structures,  becomes  more  marked  as  war 
ceases  to  be  chronic :  a  corollary  being  that  social  types 
are  essentially  distinguished  by  the  proportion  between 
the  militant  structures  and  the  industrial  structures,  and 
undergo  metamorphoses  according  to  the  growth  or  de- 
cline of  either  order  of  activity. 

One  more  essay,  published  in  1870,  on  "  The  Origin 
of  Animal- Worship, "  must  be  named  as  containing  an- 
other idea  destined  to  undergo  much  development  in  the 
Principles  of  Sociology,  the  first  instalment  of  which  was 
issued  in  June,  1874.  In  the  third  paragraph  (Essays, 
i.  309)  it  is  said  that  "  The  rudimentary  form  of  all  re- 
ligion is  the  propitiation  of  dead  ancestors,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be  still  existing,  and  to  be  capable  of  working 
good  or  evil  to  their  descendants  "j1  and  that  to  prepare 


1  After  the  publication  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Principles  of 
Sociology,  a  controversy  arose  between  Mr.  (now  Prof.)  E.  B. 
Tylor  and  myself  concerning  our  respective  views.  Though  his 
view,  as  set  forth  before  1870,  was  that  animism  is  primary 
and  the  ghost-theory  secondary,  while  my  view  was  that  the 
ghost-theory  is  primary  and  animism  secondary,  yet  he  had 
the  impression  that  I  had  derived  my  view  from  him.  In  the 
course  of  the  controversy,  when  referring  back  to  things  I  had 
written,  I  overlooked  these  sentences  just  quoted,  which  (setting 

353 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

for  "  sociology,  I  have,  for  some  years  past,  directed 
much  attention  to  the  modes  of  thought  current  in  the 
simpler  human  societies. ' ' i 

Growing  complexity  of  subject-matter  implies  grow- 
ing complexity  of  causation ;  and  with  recognition  of  ad- 
ditional factors  comes  proof  of  the  inadequacy  of  factors 
previously  recognised.  This  is  manifest  when  tracing  the 
filiation  of  ideas  throughout  the  Principles  of  Sociology. 
The  modifications  resulted  from  evidence  contained  in 
the  Descriptive  Sociology  and  added  to  from  various 
other  sources.  Simple  induction  now  played  a  leading 
part. 

Already  in  Social  Statics  there  were  recognitions  of 
the  truth  that  the  fitnesses  of  institutions  are  relative  to 
the  natures  of  citizens.  More  definitely  the  Study  of 
Sociology  again  displayed  this  conviction.  In  youth  my 
constitutional  repugnance  to  coercion,  and  consequent 
hatred  of  despotic  forms  of  rule,  had  involved  a  belief 
like  that  expressed  in  the  American  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  like  that  which  swayed  the  French  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution — the  belief  that  free  forms  of 
government  would  ensure  social  welfare.  A  concomitant 
was  a  great  abhorrence  of  slavery,  and  a  conviction  that 
it  has  always  been  an  unmitigated  evil.  Ecclesiasticism, 
too,  excited  in  me  profound  aversion.  Along  with  this 
went  an  unhesitating  assumption  that  all  superstitions 
are  as  mischievous  as  they  are  erroneous.  These  and 
allied  pre-judgments  were  destroyed  or  greatly  modified 
by  contemplation  of  the  facts.  So  that  many  ideas  now 
set  forth  were  not  affiliated  upon  preceding  ones,  but 
generated  de  novo:  some  independent  of,  and  some  at 
variance  with,  preceding  ones. 

As  in  the  works  on  Biology  and  on  Psychology,  fulfil- 
ment of  the  original  programme,  which  in  each  case  set 

aside  any  difference  of  view  between  us)  conclusively  dispose 
of  his  supposition. 

1  See  vol  i.,  chaps,  xii.,  p.  195;  xiv.,  p.  252;  Supra,  xxvii.,  p.  193. 

354 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

out  with  Data  and  Inductions,  was  largely  influential  in 
producing   certain   of   these   changes.     Especially    did 
search  for  the  data  compel  attention  to  those  traits  of 
human  beings  which  are  factors  in  social  co-operation. 
Throughout  many  chapters  the  affiliation  of  every  kind 
of  superstition  upon  the  universal  belief  in  the  doubles 
of  the  dead,  was  traced ;  and  it  became  manifest  that  all 
religious  ceremonies  originate  from  endeavours  to  please 
or  pacify  the  ghost.     The  multitudinous  facts  showing 
this  conspired  also  to  show  that  belief  in  the  continued 
or  rather  the  increased,  power  of  the  dead  ruler  came  to 
supplement    the    power   of   the   living    ruler;    so    that 
strengthening   of  natural  control   by   supposed  super- 
natural control  became  a  means  of  maintaining  social 
unions  which  could  not  else  have  been  maintained.    This 
was  an  all-important  idea  not  affiliated  upon  preceding 
ideas.     Nor  could  there  be  affiliated  on  preceding  ideas 
the  convictions  produced  by  the  logic  of  facts,  that  king- 
ship and  slavery  are  institutions  naturally  arising  in  the 
course  of  social  evolution,  and  necessary  to  be  passed 
through  on  the  way  to  higher  social  forms.     So,  too,  it 
had  to  be  reluctantly  admitted  that  war,  everywhere  and 
always  hateful,  has  nevertheless  been  a  factor  in  civilisa- 
tion, by  bringing  about  the  consolidation  of  groups — 
simple   into   compound,    doubly-compound,    and   trebly- 
compound — until     great     nations     are     formed.       As, 
throughout    the    organic    world,    evolution    has    been 
achieved  by  the  merciless  discipline  of  Nature,  "  red  in 
tooth  and  claw  ";  so,  in  the  social  world,  a  discipline 
scarcely  less  bloody  has  been  the  agency  by  which  so- 
cieties have  been  massed  together  and  social  structures 
developed:  an  admission  which  may  go  along  with  the 
belief  that  there  is  coming  a  stage  in  which  survival 
of  the  fittest  among  societies,  hitherto  effected  by  san- 
guinary conflicts,  will  be  effected  by  peaceful  conflicts. 

To  these  indications  of  the  re-moulded  conceptions 
pervading  the  Principles  of  Sociology,  have  now  to  be 
added  the  ideas  characterising  the  successive  parts. 
355 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

In  "  The  Inductions  of  Sociology,"  the  analogy  be- 
tween social  organisms  and  individual  organisms  was 
elaborated :  various  minor  ideas  being  brought  to  enforce 
the  general  idea.  Here,  as  before,  the  assigned  warrant 
for  the  comparison  is  the  incontestable  truth  that  in  both 
there  is  co-operation  of  parts  with  consequent  mutual 
dependence  of  parts;  and  that  by  these  the  life  of  the 
whole,  individual  or  social,  is  constituted  and  main- 
tained. Among  further  developments  of  the  conception 
the  first  was  a  perception  of  the  fact  that  whereas  in 
individual  organisms  the  co-operation  is  among  parts 
which  are  in  physical  contact,  in  societies  the  co-opera- 
tion is  among  parts  which  are  in  various  degrees  sep- 
arated. At  the  same  time  it  is  shown  that  the  co-opera- 
tion, effected  in  living  bodies  by  molecular  waves  propa- 
gated through  the  tissues,  is,  in  societies,  effected  by 
' '  signs  of  feelings  and  thoughts  conveyed  from  person  to 
person."  A  concomitant  difference  is  named.  Whereas 
the  animal  organism  has  one  sentient  centre,  for  the 
benefit  of  which,  in  superior  types,  all  other  component 
parts  exist,  in  the  social  organism  there  are  as  many 
sentient  centres  as  there  are  persons;  and,  consequently, 
the  units  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  existing  for  the 
benefit  of  the  aggregate.  Recognition  of  this  essential 
difference  explains  the  apparent  anomaly  that  while  so- 
cieties highly  organised  for  corporate  action,  and  in  that 
respect  analogous  to  superior  types  of  animals,  are  to  be 
regarded  as  the  highest  so  long  as  militancy  is  great, 
and  the  preservation  of  the  society  as  a  whole  is  the 
dominant  end;  under  peaceful  conditions,  when  corpo- 
rate action  is  no  longer  needed  for  offence  and  defence, 
the  highest  types  of  society  are  those  in  which  the  co- 
ercive governmental  organisation  has  dwindled,  and  cor- 
porate action,  with  its  correlative  structures,  gives  place 
to  individual  action,  having  directive  structures  of  a  rela- 
tively non-coercive  kind.1 

1  Some  fifty  years  ago  M.  Milne-Edwards  pointed  out  the  anal- 
ogy between  the  division  of  labour  in  a  society  and  the  physio- 

356 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

The  ideas  contained  in  Part  III.,  "  Domestic  Institu- 
tions," mostly  show  little  evidence  of  descent  from  pre- 
ceding ideas.  The  first  significant  one  is  contained  in 
a  chapter  on  "  The  Diverse  Interests  of  the  Species,  the 
Parents,  and  the  Offspring  ";  in  which  it  is  shown  that 
along  with  a  certain  community  of  interest  there  go  cer- 
tain antagonisms.  In  low  types  the  sacrifices  of  indi- 
vidual life  and  well-being  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
species,  are  great;  and  the  sacrifices  of  parents  to  off- 
spring and  of  offspring  from  inefficiency  of  parents,  are 
also  great ;  but  as  evolution  progresses,  all  such  sacrifices 
gradually  become  less.  The  next  conclusion  suggested 
by  the  evidence  is  that  the  sexual  relations  which  arise, 
are,  in  a  measure,  appropriate  to  the  respective  social 
stages  reached :  polygamy  having  a  natural  relation  to  a 
chronic  warfare  which  entails  much  male  mortality.  A 
further  conclusion  which  the  facts  establish  is  that  the 
status  of  women  is  low  in  proportion  as  militancy  is 
high,  and  gradually  improves  (as  does  that  of  children 
also)  in  proportion  as  industrialism  develops.  Of  chief 

logical  division  of  labour  in  an  animal,  and  regarded  the  growing 
complexity  of  structure  as  a  concomitant  in  the  one  case  as  in 
the  other.  If  any  one  had  thereafter  asserted  that  he  based 
the  science  of  Biology  on  the  science  of  Sociology,  the  assertion 
would  have  been  regarded  as  extremely  absurd.  But  the  ab- 
surdity would  have  been  no  greater  than  is  that  fallen  into  by 
some  American  sociologists — Prof.  Giddings  and  Mr.  Lester  Ward 
among  them — who  assert  that  I  base  Sociology  upon  Biology 
because  I  have  exhibited  this  same  analogy  under  its  converse 
aspect;  and  who  continue  to  'do  this  though  I  have  pointed  out 
that  the  analogy  does  not  in  either  case  furnish  a  foundation, 
but  merely  yields  mutual  illumination.  (See  Essays,  vol.  iii., 
p.  323  et  seq.)  Those  not  biassed  by  the  desire  to  make  their 
own  views  appear  unlike  views  previously  enunciated,  will  see 
that  if  Sociology  was  by  me  based  on  Biology,  biological  interpre- 
tations would  be  manifest  in  all  parts  of  the  Principles  of 
Sociology  succeeding  the  part  in  which  the  above  analogy  is  set 
forth.  But  they  are  not.  The  interpretations  running  through 
Parts  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.,  and  VIII.,  though  they  are  con- 
gruous with  this  analogy,  are  not  guided  by  it,  but  have  quite 
other  guidance.  They  are  based  on  the  general  law  of  Evolu- 
tion, which  is  from  time  to  time  referred  to  as  illustrated  in 
the  particular  group  of  phenomena  under  consideration. 

357 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

importance,  however,  is  the  doctrine  that  a  radical  dis- 
tinction must  be  maintained  between  the  ethics  of  family 
life  and  the  ethics  of  social  life.  The  ethics  of  family 
life,  as  concerning  offspring,  are  that  benefits  received 
must  be  great  in  proportion  as  merit  is  small;  whereas, 
on  passing  into  social  life,  the  individual  must  become 
subject  to  the  law  that  benefits  shall  be  proportioned  to 
merits.  And  it  is  contended  that  the  effects  are  immedi- 
ately fatal  in  the  first  case  and  remotely  fatal  in  the  last 
if  a  converse  regime  is  in  force. 

The  next  division  exemplifies  not  the  filiation  of  ideas 
but  the  entire  overturn  of  an  earlier  idea  by  a  later. 
Dominant  as  political  government  is  in  the  thoughts  of 
all,  it  is  naturally  assumed  to  be  the  primary  form  of 
government;  and  this  had  been  assumed  by  me,  as  by 
everybody.  But  the  facts  which  the  Descriptive  So- 
ciology put  before  me,  proved  that  of  the  several  kinds 
of  control  exercised  over  men  the  ceremonial  control  is 
the  first.  After  recognition  of  this  unexpected  priority, 
the  cardinal  truth  recognised  was  that  ceremonies  at 
large  originate  in  the  relation  between  conqueror  and 
conquered :  beginning  with  mutilations  and  trophies,  and 
running  out  into  all  forms  of  propitiatory  actions  and 
speeches — obeisances,  modes  of  address,  presents,  visits, 
titles,  badges  and  costumes,  etc.  The  development  of 
these  exhibits  very  clearly  the  evolution  from  a  simple 
germ  to  a  complex  aggregate,  characterised  by  increas- 
ing heterogeneity  and  definiteness.  A  guiding  truth 
finally  emphasised  was,  that  not  only  does  ceremony  be- 
gin with  the  behaviour  of  the  conquered  man  to  the  con- 
queror, but  that  throughout  all  its  developments  it  main- 
tains its  relation  to  militancy;  being  peremptory  and 
definite  in  proportion  as  militancy  is  great,  and  diminish- 
ing in  its  authority  and  precision  as  industrialism  quali- 
fies militancy.  This  connexion  is  one  aspect  of  the  truth 
that  militancy  implies  the  principle  of  status,  which  in- 
volves ceremonial  observances,  while  industrialism,  im- 
plying contract,  does  not  involve  ceremonial  observances. 
358 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

b 

After  premising  that  political  institutions  must  be  re- 
garded as  relative  to  the  circumstances  and  natures  of 
the  peoples  living  under  them,  there  is  drawn  a  funda- 
mental contrast  between  the  two  kinds  of  co-operation 
which  societies  exhibit.  There  is  conscious  co-operation 
in  the  actions  of  a  society  as  a  whole  against  other  so- 
cieties, and  unconscious  co-operation  in  the  actions  of 
citizens  severally  satisfying  their  own  wants  by  subserv- 
ing the  wants  of  others,  but  who  do  this  without  con- 
cert: no  arrangement  for  undertaking  different  kinds  of 
production  having  been  made  or  even  thought  of.  Ef- 
forts for  self-preservation  by  the  aggregate  originate  the 
first  form  of  organisation;  while  efforts  for  self-preser- 
vation by  the  units  originate  the  last  form  of  organisa- 
tion; the  first  being  coercive  and  the  last  non-coercive. 
Here,  while  setting  down  these  leading  truths,  there  is 
disclosed  to  me  one  which  I  had  not  observed — one  which, 
like  so  many  others,  is  seen  in  the  analogy  between  in- 
dividual organisation  and  social  organisation.  For  the 
contrast  between  the  conscious  co-operation  of  the  struc- 
tures which  carry  on  the  external  actions  of  a  society, 
and  the  unconscious  co-operation  of  the  industrial  struc- 
tures which  carry  on  sustentation,  is  paralleled  by  the 
contrast  between  the  conscious  co-operation  of  the  senses, 
limbs,  and  cerebro-spinal  nervous  system  of  a  vertebrate 
animal,  and  the  unconscious  co-operation  of  its  visceral 
organs  and  the  nervous  system  of  organic  life  which  con- 
trols them. 

The  general  truth  referred  to  before,  and  again  im- 
plied in  the  statements  just  made,  is  that  political  or- 
ganisation is  initiated  by  war  and  develops  with  the 
continuance  of  war.  The  primitive  chief  is  the  leading 
warrior.  During  long  stages  the  military  chief  and  the 
civil  chief  are  the  same,  and  even  in  the  later  stages  in 
which  the  king  becomes  mainly  the  civil  chief,  he  re- 
mains nominally  the  military  chief.  By  implication  the 
political  organisation  is  at  first  identical  with  the  army 
organisation.  Chiefs  and  sub-chiefs,  kings  and  feudal 
359 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

lords,  are  in  peace  central  and  local  rulers ;  and  the  civil 
discipline  among  them  and  their  subordinates  is  simply 
the  military  discipline:  the  servile  or  non-fighting  por- 
tion of  the  population  being  the  commissariat. 

One  final  truth — an  all-important  truth — has  to  be 
named  and  emphasised.  This  is  that  the  fighting  struc- 
tures and  the  industrial  structures,  though  in  a  sense  co- 
operative, are  in  another  sense  antagonistic ;  and  that  the 
type  of  the  society  is  determined  by  the  predominance 
of  the  one  or  the  other.  The  militant  type,  in  proportion 
as  it  is  pronounced,  entails  compulsory  co-operation,  the 
regime  of  status,  and  the  entire  subjection  of  the  indi- 
vidual ;  while  the  industrial  type  is  characterised  by 
voluntary  co-operation,  the  regime  of  contract,  and  the 
independence  of  the  individual:  all  the  habits,  senti- 
ments, and  ideas  which  prevail  being  in  either  case  ac- 
companiments of  the  type. 

In  Part  VII.  it  is  shown  that  just  as  political  institu- 
tions are  initiated  by  the  emergence  of  a  leading  war- 
rior who,  first  chief  in  war,  presently  becomes  chief  in 
peace;  so  ecclesiastical  institutions  have  their  beginning 
in  the  emergence  of  a  special  ancestor-worship  from  the 
pervading  ancestor-worship  carried  on  by  all  families. 
The  propitiation  of  the  deceased  chief  rises  into  pre- 
dominance; the  son  who  rules  in  his  place,  and  succeed- 
ing rulers,  being  the  primitive  priests.  Thus  arising,  the 
cults  of  heroes,  conquerors,  kings,  generate  a  polytheism 
with  its  various  priesthoods;  and,  by  implication,  a  de- 
veloped ecclesiastical  system  arises  when  victories  pro- 
duce composite  societies  and  supreme  rulers.  Thus  dif- 
ferentiated from  political  institutions,  ecclesiastical  in- 
stitutions are  partly  co-operative  and  partly  competitive : 
co-operative  in  so  far  that  they  join  in  enforcing  the 
laws  derived  from  the  past,  and  competitive  in  so  far 
that  there  grows  up  a  struggle  for  supremacy:  the 
ecclesiastical  power,  in  virtue  of  its  assumed  divine  au- 
thority, often  becoming  predominant.  Differentiating  as 
the  ecclesiastical  structure  thus  does  from  the  political 
360 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

structure,  it  long  participates  in  political  functions.  Its 
priests  take  part  in  war,  and  act  as  judges  and  local 
rulers  during  peace.  But  the  differentiation  becomes 
almost  complete  as  social  evolution  progresses.  And 
while  ecclesiastical  structures  separate  from  political 
structures,  there  is  shown  within  them  progressing  inte- 
gration and  progressing  heterogeneity. 

The  futility  of  historical  studies  as  ordinarily  pursued, 
indicated  already,  is  again  shown  on  turning  to  the  evo- 
lution of  "  Professional  Institutions."  Even  before  the 
collection  and  classification  of  the  facts  presented  by  in- 
ferior societies  had  gone  far  enough  to  make  possible  a 
complete  tabulation,  it  became  manifest  that  all  the  pro- 
fessions are  differentiated  from  the  priesthood.  But  so 
little  recognised  was  this  truth  that  the  tabular  repre- 
sentation, implying  derivation  of  the  one  from  the  other, 
created  surprise  among  highly  educated  critics. 

Some  significant  evolutionary  facts  are  exhibited  in 
"  Industrial  Institutions."  The  division  of  labour  dis- 
plays unfamiliar  features  when  developmentally  con- 
sidered. Out  of  the  primitive  homogeneous  stage  there 
arise  by  degrees  the  three  distinguishable  processes,  Pro- 
duction, Distribution,  and  Exchange;  and  it  is  pointed 
out  that  in  each  of  these  divisions  there  arises  a  second- 
ary division  into  the  essential  and  the  auxiliary — the 
actual  processes  and  the  aiding  processes.  The  increas- 
ing interdependence  of  all  these  processes  is  shown  to 
constitute  an  industrial  integration.  On  passing  from 
the  division  of  labour  to  the  regulation  of  labour,  we 
come  upon  the  truth,  inferable  a  priori  and  established 
a  posteriori,  that  the  regulation  of  labour  has  a  common 
origin  with  political  regulation,  and  gradually  differen- 
tiates from  it.  The  first  stage  succeeding  that  in  which 
each  male  member  of  a  tribe,  while  warrior  and  hunter, 
makes  for  himself  all  such  things  as  women  cannot  make, 
is  the  stage  in  which  conquered  men  are  made  slaves ;  and 
the  directive  power  exercised  over  the  slave  is,  like  the 
political  directive  power,  purely  coercive.  Social  life  and 
361 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

domestic  life  alike  exhibit  the  relation  of  ruler  and 
subject;  since  this  form  of 'regulation  for  slaves  is  also 
the  form  of  regulation  for  children.  As  the  paternal 
passes  into  the  patriarchal,  the  control  of  industry  con- 
tinues to  be  similar  in  nature  to  governmental  control. 
The  like  holds  in  large  measure  when  communes  arise; 
and  though  under  gild-regulation  there  is  independent 
industrial  action,  it  is  subject  to  the  coercive,  quasi- 
political  action  of  the  gild.  Only  by  degrees  does  the 
industrial  regulation,  based  on  contract,  separate  itself 
from  the  original  form  of  industrial  regulation,  based  on 
status:  the  law  of  evolution  is  again  illustrated.  Passing 
over  corollaries,  it  will  suffice  to  name  the  generalisation 
finally  reached,  that  the  essential  differences  in  indus- 
trial regulation,  as  in  political  regulation,  are  implied 
by  the  question — To  what  extent  does  a  man  own  himself, 
and  to  what  extent  is  he  owned  by  others?  In  actively 
militant  states,  like  Sparta,  he  is  the  slave  of  the  society, 
compelled  to  devote  his  activities  and  his  life  to  its 
preservation :  each  is  owned  by  the  rest.  But  as  fast  as 
industrialism  qualifies  militancy,  he  acquires  increas- 
ing possession  of  himself;  until,  in  a  society  like  our 
own,  he  is  coerced  scarcely  more  than  is  implied  by  pay- 
ing taxes  and,  possibly,  in  case  of  war,  going  as  a  con- 
script. Still,  however,  he  remains  in  considerable  meas- 
ure subject  to  the  coercion  of  his  industrial  combina- 
tions— gilds  or  trade-unions.  He  is  but  partially  master 
of  himself ,  since  he  can  use  his  abilities  for  self -mainte- 
nance only  under  such  conditions  as  they  prescribe. 
Complete  possession  of  himself  can  be  had  by  each  citi- 
zen only  in  a  perfectly  peaceful  state,  and  in  the  absence 
of  all  restraints  on  his  power  to  make  contracts. 

In  the  Principles  of  Ethics,  the  title  of  the  second 
chapter  "  The  Evolution  of  Conduct,"  implies  a  point 
of  view  differing  widely  from  the  ordinary  point  of 
view.  The  idea  that  Ethics  is  to  be  conceived  as  a  certain 
aspect  of  evolving  conduct,  was  utterly  alien  to  current 
362 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

ethical  ideas,  at  the  same  time  that  it  was  congruous  with 
the  ideas  contained  in  the  preceding  works.  The  tap- 
root of  the  system  goes  back  to  Social  Statics,  in  which 
some  root-fibres  went  into  Biology,  Psychology,  and, 
largely,  into  Sociology.  These  fibres  had  now  developed 
into  branch  roots,  as  is  shown  by  the  titles  of  successive 
chapters—"  The  Physical  View,"  "  The  Biological 
View,"  "  The  Psychological  View,"  "  The  Sociological 
View."  Ethics  was  thus  conceived  as  treating  of  con- 
duct in  relation  to  physical  activities,  vital  processes, 
and  mental  functions,  as  well  as  in  relation  to  the  wants 
and  actions  of  surrounding  men.  Hence  not  only  duty 
to  others,  but  also  duty  to  self,  had  to  be  recognised 
and  emphasised. 

After  these  and  other  Data  came  the  question — What 
are  the  Inductions?  Under  this  head  had  to  be  ranged 
the  various  kinds  of  conduct,  and  the  various  ideas  of 
right  and  wrong,  found  in  human  societies  of  all  kinds 
and  in  all  stages  of  progress.  The  first  general  conclu- 
sion drawn  from  this  Comparative  Ethics  was  that  there 
is,  in  each  case,  an  adaptation  between  the  ideas  of  right 
and  wrong  and  the  kind  of  life  which  inherited  nature 
and  environing  conditions  produce;  and  the  second  con- 
clusion was  that  there  exists  no  such  thing  as  a  moral 
sense  common  to  all  mankind,  but  that  the  moral  sense 
in  each  society,  and  in  each  stage,  adjusts  itself  to  the 
conditions. 

Part  III.,  dealing  with  "  The  Ethics  of  Individual 
Life,"  recognised,  in  pursuance  of  the  general  concep- 
tion, the  moral  sanction  of  all  those  individual  activities 
implied  in  the  healthful  and  pleasurable  pursuit  of  per- 
sonal ends,  bodily  and  mental.  The  conclusions  drawn, 
though  checked  by  Biology  and  Psychology,  were  in  the 
main  empirical ;  for  there  are  no  adequate  data  on  which 
to  base  a  definite  code  of  private  conduct.  Personal  na- 
ture must  largely  determine  the  special  activities  and 
special  limits  to  them,  though  vital  laws  must  regulate 
these.  But  there  is  named,  though  not  adequately  em- 
363 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

phasised,  a  general  consideration  furnishing  much  guid- 
ance; namely,  that  to  achieve  the  fullest  life  and  great- 
est happiness,  a  due  proportion  must  be  maintained 
among  the  activities  of  the  various  faculties:  excess  in 
one  and  deficiency  in  another  being,  by  implication, 
negatived.  Doubtless,  in  our  social  life  the  sub-division 
of  occupations  necessitates  great  disproportion;  but 
consciousness  of  the  normal  proportion  serves  to 
restrain. 

In  "  The  Ethics  of  Social  Life — Justice,"  there  is  at 
length  a  return  to  the  topic  with  which  the  whole  series 
of  my  writings  commenced.  In  "  The  Proper  Sphere  of 
Government,"  and  then  in  Social  Statics,  endeavours 
were  made  to  reach  definite  ideas  concerning  the  just 
regulation  of  private  conduct  and  the  just  relations  of 
individuals  to  the  social  aggregate,  represented  by  its 
government.  And  now,  after  all  the  explorations  made 
in  an  interval  of  forty  years,  this  topic  came  up  once 
more  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  light  of  the  results  which  had 
then  been  reached.  No  essential  changes  of  the  views 
set  forth  in  Social  Statics  proved  needful ;  but  there  came 
to  be  recognised  a  deeper  origin  for  its  fundamental 
principle.  The  assertion  of  the  liberty  of  each  limited 
only  by  the  like  liberties  of  all,  was  shown  to  imply  the 
doctrine  that  each  ought  to  receive  the  benefits  and  bear 
the  evils  entailed  by  his  actions,  carried  on  within  these 
limits;  and  Biology  had  shown  that  this  principle  fol- 
lows from  the  ultimate  truth  that  each  creature  must 
thrive  or  dwindle,  live  or  die,  according  as  it  fulfils  well 
or  ill  the  conditions  of  its  existence — a  principle  which, 
in  the  case  of  social  beings,  implies  that  the  activities  of 
each  must  be  kept  within  the  bounds  imposed  by  the 
like  activities  of  others.  So  that,  while  among  inferior 
creatures  survival  of  the  fittest  is  the  outcome  of  aggres- 
sive competition,  among  men  as  socially  combined  it  must 
be  the  outcome  of  non-aggressive  competition :  mainte- 
nance of  the  implied  limits,  and  insurance  of  the  benefits 
gained  within  the  limits,  being  what  we  call  justice. 
364 


THE  FILIATION  OF  IDEAS 

And  thus,  this  ultimate  principle  of  social  conduct  was 
affiliated  upon  the  general  process  of  organic  evolution. 

"  Negative  beneficence  "  was  recognised  as  a  needful 
supplement  to  Justice.  -/  While  society  in  its  corporate 
capacity  is  bound  to  enforce  Justice  to  the  uttermost, 
there  falls  on  each  individual,  acting  independently,  the 
obligation  to  refrain  from  doing  some  things  which  "the 
law  of  equal  freedom  warrants  him  in  doing.  This 
special  obligation  follows  from  the  general  obligation 
of  each  to  discharge  his  debt  to  the  society  which  has 
fostered  him:  doing  this  by  aiding  in  its  improvement — 
by  cultivating  a  sympathy  such  as  will  not  tolerate  the 
taking  of  every  advantage  strict  justice  accords.  But  it 
was  held  that  this  qualification  of  the  dictates  of  justice 
by  those  of  negative  beneficence  must  be  left  to  the  pri- 
vate judgment  of  each. 

In  the  final  division  "  Positive  Beneficence,"  not  pas- 
sive altruism  was  enjoined,  but  active  altruism.  In  the 
chapter  on  "  The  Evolution  of  Conduct,"  it  was  shown 
that  the  highest  life,  and  consequently  the  highest  happi- 
ness, can  be  reached  only  when  ' '  all  the  members  of  a 
society  give -mutual  help  in  the  achievement  of  ends  "; 
and,  by  implication,  can  be  reached  only  when  they  give 
mutual  help  in  the  avoidance  of  evils.  In  this  final 
division  it  was  contended  that,  while  there  is  an  indirect 
obligation  on  each  to  maintain  and  improve  that  social 
state  which  gives  him  the  facilities  of  living  he  enjoys, 
he  gains  by  cultivating  the  feelings  which  cause  fulfil- 
ment of  this  obligation;  since  the  sympathy  which 
prompts  alleviation  of  others'  pains  is  the  same 
sympathy  which  makes  possible  the  participation  in 
others'  pleasures,  and  therefore  exalts  personal  happi- 
ness. 

March,  1899. 


365 


APPENDIX   C 

LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 
THE  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY 

First  Principles.  First  edition,  1862 ;  second  edition, 
1867 ;  third  edition,  1875 ;  fourth  edition,  1880 ;  fifth 
edition,  1884;  sixth  edition,  and  finally  revised, 
1900.  Reprinted  with  an  additional  appendix  and 
a  new  index,  1904. 

Principles  of  Biology.  Vol.  i.,  1864;  vol.  ii.,  1867;  re- 
vised and  enlarged  edition,  vol.  i.,  1898 ;  vol.  ii.,  1899. 

Principles  of  Psychology.  First  edition,  1855;  second 
edition,  vol.  i.,  1870;  vol.  ii.,  1872;  third  edition, 
1880;  fourth  edition,  1899. 

Principles  of  Sociology.  Vol.  i.,  first  edition,  1876;  sec- 
ond edition,  1877 ;  third  and  enlarged  edition,  1885. 
Vol.  ii.,  Part  IV.,  1879;  Part  V.,  1882.  Vol.  iii., 
Part  VI.,  1885 ;  Parts  VII.  and  VIII.,  1896. 

Principles  of  Ethics.  Vol.  i.,  Part  I.,  1879;  Parts  II. 
and  III.,  1892.  Vol.  ii.,  Part  IV.,  1891;  Parts  V. 
and  VI,  1893. 

OTHER  WORKS 

Social  Statics.     First  edition,  1855 ;  abridged  and  revised 

edition,  1892. 
Education.    First  edition,   1861;   cheap  edition,   1878; 

sixpenny  edition,  published  by  the  Rationalist  Press 

Association,  1903.     Reprinted,  1905. 
The  Study  of  Sociology.     International  Scientific  Series, 

first  edition,  1873 ;  second  to  seventh  editions,  1873- 

78;  library  edition,  1880. 
366 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

The  Man  versus  the  State.  First  edition,  1884 ;  reprinted 
with  abridged  and  revised  edition  of  Social  Statics, 
1892. 

Essays.  First  Series,  1857.  Second  Series,  1863.  Third 
Series,  1874.  Revised  edition  in  three  volumes, 
1890. 

Various  Fragments.  First  edition,  1897;  enlarged  edi- 
tion, 1900. 

Facts  and  Comments.     1902. 
Descriptive  Sociology: — 
English.     1873. 

Ancient  American  Races.     1874. 
Lowest  Races,  Negrito  Races,  and  Malayo-Poly- 

nesian  Races.     1874. 
African  Races.     1875. 
Asiatic  Races.     1876. 
American  Races.     1878. 
Hebrews  and  Phoenicians.    1880. 
French.     1881. 
Autobiography.    In  two  volumes,  1904. 

ESSAYS,  ARTICLES,  AND  LETTERS  PUBLISHED  IN  MAGAZINES 
AND  NEWSPAPERS 

1836. 

"  Crystallization."  Bath  and  West  of  England  Maga- 
zine for  January. 

"  The  Poor  Laws."  Bath  and  West  of  England  Maga- 
zine for  March. 

1839. 

"  Skew  Arches."  Civil  Engineer  and  Architect's  Jour- 
nal for  May.  (Autobiography,  i.,  517.) 

1840. 

"  A  Geometrical  Theorem."     Civil  Engineer  and  Archi- 
tect's Journal  for  July.     (Autobiography,  i.,  520.) 
367 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

1841. 

"  A  New  Form  of  Viaduct."  Civil  Engineer  and 
Architect's  Journal  for  July. 

"  The  Transverse  Strain  of  Beams."  Civil  Engineer 
and  Architect's  Journal  for  September. 

"  Scale  of  Equivalents."  Written  for  the  Civil  Engi- 
neer and  Architect's  Journal,  but  not  published. 
(Autobiography,  i.,  525.) 

1842. 

"  Architectural  Precedent."  Civil  Engineer  and  Archi- 
tect's Journal  for  January. 

Letter  on  above.  Civil  Engineer  and  Architect's  Jour- 
nal for  March. 

"  Velocimeter. "  Civil  Engineer  and  Architect's  Jour- 
nal for  July.  (Autobiography,  i.,  522.) 

Letters  "  On  the  Proper  Sphere  of  Government."  Non- 
conformist, 15,  22  June;  13,  27  July;  10  August; 
7,  21  September;  19,  26  October;  23  November;  14 
December. 

1843. 

"  Effervescence — Rebecca  and  her  Daughters."  Non- 
conformist, 28  June. 

"  Mr.  Hume  and  National  Education."  Nonconform- 
ist, 2  August. 

"  The  Non-Intrusion  Riots."  Nonconformist,  11  Octo- 
ber. 

Letter  about  the  Derby  flood  of  April,  1842.  Architect, 
Engineer,  and  Surveyor  for  October. 

1844. 

"  Imitation  and  Benevolence."    Zoist  for  January. 

"  Remarks  on  the  Theory  of  Reciprocal  Dependence  in 
the  Animal  and  Vegetable  Creations,  as  regards  its 
bearing    on    Palaeontology."    Philosophical    Maga- 
zine for  February.     (Autobiography,  i.,  533.) 
368 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

"  Situation  of  the  Organ  of  Amativeness. "    Zoist  for 

July. 

"  The  Organ  of  Wonder."     Zoist  for  October. 
Various    Articles.      Birmingham    Pilot,    September    to 

December. 

1846. 

"  Justice  before  Generosity."  Nonconformist,  30  De- 
cember. 

1847. 

"  The  Form  of  the  Earth  no  proof  of  Original  Fluid- 
ity." Philosophical  Magazine  for  March.  (Auto- 
biography, i.,  546.) 

1848. 

Article  on  "Political  Smashers."  Standard  of  Free- 
dom, June  or  July. 

1851. 

"  A  Solution  of  the  Water  Question."  Economist,  20 
December.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  229.) 

1852. 
"  Use  and  Beauty."    Leader,  3  January.     (Essays,  ii., 

370.) 
"  The  Development  Hypothesis."    Leader,  20  March. 

(Essays,  i.,  1.) 
"  A  Theory  of  Population."     Westminster  Review  for 

April.     (Principles  of  Biology,  i.,  577.) 
"  The  Bookselling  Question."    Times,  5  April.     (Vari- 
ous Fragments,  p.  1.) 
"  A    Theory    of    Tears    and    Laughter."    Leader,    11 

October. 
"  The   Sources   of   Architectural   Types."    Leader,   23 

October.     (Essays,  ii.,  375.) 
"  The  Philosophy  of  Style."     Westminster  Review  for 

October.     (Essays,  ii.,  333.) 
369 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

"  Gracefulness."    Leader,  25   December.     (Essays,  ii., 
381.) 

1853. 

"  The    Value    of    Physiology."    National    Temperance 
Chronicle  for  February. 

"  The    Valuation    of    Evidence."     Leader,    25    June. 
(Essays,  ii.,  161.) 

"  Over-Legislation."     Westminster    Review    for    July. 
(Essays,  iii.,  229.) 

"  The  Universal  Postulate."     Westminster  Review  for 
October. 

"  The  Use  of  Anthropomorphism."    Leader,  5  Novem- 
ber. 

1854. 

"  Manners    and    Fashion."     Westminster    Review    for 

April.     (Essays,  iii.,  1.) 
"  Personal  Beauty."    Leader,  15  April  and  13  May. 

(Essays,  ii.,  387.) 
"  The  Art  of  Education."    North  British  Review  for 

May.     (Education,  chap,  ii.) 
"  The  Genesis  of  Science."    British  Quarterly  Review 

for  July.     (Essays  ii.,  1.) 
"  Railway    Morals   and   Railway  Policy."    Edinburgh 

Review  for  October.     (Essays,  iii.,  52.) 

1855. 

"  An  Element  in  Method."    A  chapter  in  Principles  of 
Psychology.     (Various  Fragments,  p.  3.) 

1856. 

Letter  to  Editor  on  charge  of  Atheism.    Nonconformist, 
23  January. 

1857. 

"  Progress:   its  Law  and  Cause."     Westminster  Review 
for  April.     (Essays,  i.,  8.) 
370 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

"  The  Ultimate  Laws  of  Physiology."  National  Re- 
view for  October.  (Essays,  i.,  63.) 

"  The  Origin  and  Function  of  Music."  Eraser's  Maga- 
zine for  October.  (Essays,  ii.,  400.) 

"  Representative  Government:  What  is  it  good  for?  " 
Westminster  Review  for  October.  (Essays,  iii., 
283.) 

1858. 

"  State  Tamperings  with  Money  and  Banks."  West- 
minster Review  for  January.  (Essays,  iii.,  326.) 

"  Moral  Discipline  of  Children."  British  Quarterly 
Review  for  April.  (Education,  chap,  iii.) 

"  Recent  Astronomy  and  the  Nebular  Hypothesis." 
Westminster  Review  for  July.  (Essays,  i.,  108.) 

"  A  Criticism  of  Professor  Owen's  Theory  of  the  Verte- 
brate Skeleton."  British  and  Foreign  Medico- 
Chirurgical  Review  for  October.  (Principles  of 
Biology,  second  edition,  ii.,  548.) 

1859. 
"  The  Laws  of  Organic  Form."    British  and  Foreign 

Medico-Chirurgical  Review  for  January. 
"  The    Morals    of    Trade."     Westminster    Review    for 

April.     (Essays,  iii.,  113.) 
"  Physical   Training."     British   Quarterly   Review   for 

April.     (Education,  chap,  iv.) 
'*  What  Knowledge  is  of  most  Worth."     Westminster 

Review  for  July.     (Education,  chap,  i.) 
"  Illogical     Geology."      Universal    Review    for    July. 

(Essays,  i.,  192.) 

Letter  on  Mr.  J.  P.  Hennessey's  paper  read  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  British  Association.  (Athenceum,  22 

October.) 

1860. 
"  Bain  on  the  Emotions  and  the  Will."     British  and 

Foreign   Medico-Chirurgical   Review   for  January. 

(Essays,  i.,  241.) 

371 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

The  Social  Organism."  Westminster  Review  for  Jan- 
uary. (Essays,  i.,  265.) 

The  Physiology  of  Laughter."  Macmillan's  Maga- 
zine for  March.  (Essays,  ii.,  452.) 

Parliamentary  Reform:  the  Dangers  and  the  Safe- 
guards. ' '  Westminster  Review  for  April.  ( Essays, 
iii.,  358.) 

Prison  Ethics."  British  Quarterly  Review  for  July. 
(Essays,  iii.,  152.) 

1862. 

Theological  Criticism."  Athenceum,  8  and  22  No- 
vember. 

On  Laws  in  General  and  the  Order  of  their  Discov- 
ery." Part  of  the  first  edition  of  First  Principles. 
(Essays,  ii.,  145.) 


1864. 

"  The  Classification  of  the  Sciences."    Published  as  a 

brochure  in  April.     (Essays,  ii.,  74.) 
"  Reasons  for  Dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M. 

Comte."    Appendix  to  the  foregoing.     (Essays,  ii., 

118.) 
"  What     is     Electricity?  "     Reader,     19     November. 

(Essays,  ii.,  168.) 

1865. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  Sun."    Reader,  25  February. 
(Essays,  i.,  182.) 

' '  The  Collective  Wisdom. ' '    Reader,  15  April.     (Essays, 
iii.,  387.) 

"  Political  Fetichism."    Reader,  10  June.     (Essays,  iii., 
393.) 

"  Mill  versus  Hamilton— The  Test  of  Truth."    Fort- 
nightly Review  for  July.     (Essays,  ii.,  188.) 
372 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 
1866. 

"  On  Circulation  and  the  Formation  of  Wood  in 
Plants."  Transactions  of  the  Linncean  Society, 
vol.  xxv.  (Principles  of  Biology,  ii.,  567.) 

1870. 

"  The  Origin  of  Animal  Worship."  Fortnightly  Re- 
view for  May.  (Essays,  i.,  308.) 

1871. 

"  A  New  Fishing  Rod."  Field,  14  January.  (Auto- 
biography, ii.,  504.) 

"  Morals  and  Moral  Sentiments."  Fortnightly  Review 
for  April.  (Essays,  i.,  331.) 

"  Mental  Evolution."     Contemporary  Review  for  June. 

"  Specialised  Administration."  Fortnightly  Review  for 
December.  (Essays,  iii.,  401.) 

1872. 

"  Survival  of  the  Fittest."    Nature,  1  February. 
"  Mr.    Martineau   on    Evolution."    Contemporary   Re- 
view for  June.     (Essays,  i.,  371.) 

1873. 

"  Replies  to  Criticisms."  Fortnightly  Review  for  No- 
vember and  December.  (Essays,  ii.,  218.) 

"  Obituary  Notice  of  J.  S.  Mill."  Examiner,  17  May. 
(Autobiography,  ii.,  506.) 

1874. 

Correspondence  relating  to  Physical  Axioms.    Nature, 
March  to  June.     (Essays,  ii.,  298-314.) 
373 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

1875. 

"  Professor  Cairnes's  Criticisms."  Fortnightly  Review 
for  February.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  14.) 

1876. 

"  The  Comparative  Psychology  of  Man."  Mind  for 
January.  (Essays,  i.,  351.) 

1877. 

"  Views  concerning  Copyright."  Evidence  given  before 
the  Royal  Commission.  (Various  Fragments,  p. 
18.) 

"A  Rejoinder  to  Mr.  McLennan."  Fortnightly  Re- 
view for  June.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  63.) 

"  Mr.  Tylor's  Review  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology." 
Mind  for  July. 

1878. 

Letter  on  the  toast  of  "  The  Fraternity  of  the  two  Na- 
tions "  proposed  at  a  dinner  in  Paris.  Standard, 
30  May. 

"  Consciousness  under  Chloroform."  Mind  for  Octo- 
ber. (Principles  of  Psychology,  i.,  636.) 

1879. 

Letter  to  M.  Alglave  about  the  "  Lois  Ferry."  Revue 
Scientifique  for  July. 

1880. 

Letter  on  the  feeling  in  England  about  the  time  of  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States — 
written  in  1869,  but  not  then  published.  New 
York  Tribune,  28  June.  (Autobiography,  ii.,  497.) 

"  Professor  Tait  on  the  Formula  of  Evolution." 
374 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

Nature,  2  and  16  December.     (Various  Fragments, 
p.  75.) 

Letter  disclaiming  having  had  to  do  with  "  George 
Eliot's  "  education.  Standard,  26  December. 

1881. 

"  Replies  to  Criticisms  on  the  Data  of  Ethics."  Mind 
for  January. 

"  Views  concerning  Copyright."  Speech  delivered  at 
a  meeting  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Pro- 
motion of  Social  Science,  held  in  May.  (Various 
Fragments,  p.  57.) 

"  Professor  Green's  Explanations."  Contemporary  Re- 
view for  February.  (Essays,  ii.,  321.) 

1882. 

Letter  on  "  The  Anti- Aggression  League."  Noncon- 
formist and  Independent,  2  March. 

' '  Professor  Goldwin  Smith  as  a  Critic. ' '  Contemporary 
Review  for  March. 

Pecuniary  liberality  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill.  Daily  News,  27 
March. 

"  Concerning  the  Misstatements  of  the  Rev.  T.  Mozley." 
Athenceum,  22  July.  (Autobiography,  i.,  549.) 

"  Ability  versus  Information."  (Various  Fragments, 
p.  91.) 

"  Book  Distribution."     (Various  Fragments,  p.  93.) 

1883. 

Letter  on  the  Edinburgh  Review  and  on  the  Land  Ques- 
tion. St.  James'  Gazette,  14  February. 

' '  The  Americans. ' '  Contemporary  Review  for  January. 
(Essays,  iii.,  471.) 

1884. 

Political  Articles.     Contemporary  Review  for  February, 
April,  May,  June  and  July. 
375 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Letter  on  a  misquotation  in  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Unity 

of  Nature.    Athenceum,  16  February. 
"  Mental  Evolution  in  Animals."    Athenceum,  5  April. 
"  Retrogressive    Religion."     Nineteenth    Century    for 

July. 
Letter  repudiating  the  opinion  attributed  to  him  that  we 

should  be  all  the  better  in  the  absence  of  education. 

Standard,  8  August. 
"  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  and  the   Comtists."     Times,   9 

September. 

"  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  and  Comte."     Times,  15   Sep- 
tember. 
"  Last  Words  about  Agnosticism  and  the  Religion  of 

Humanity."    Nineteenth  Century  for  November. 


1885. 

"  A  Rejoinder  to  M.  de  Laveleye."  Contemporary  Re- 
view for  April.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  98.) 

Letters  on  the  Spencer-Harrison  Book.  Times,  1,  3,  4 
and  6  June.  Standard,  10  and  13  June. 

"  Government  by  Minority."  Times,  21  December. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  110.) 


1886. 

The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution."    Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury for  April  and  May.    (Essays,  i.,  389.) 


1888. 

"  A  Counter  Criticism."    Nineteenth  Century  for  Feb- 
ruary.    (Essays,  i.,  467.) 

Letter   with   Reference   to   his   Opinions   on   Painting. 
Architect,  24  February. 

"  The  Ethics  of  Kant."    Fortnightly  Review  for  July. 
(Essays,  iii.,  192.) 

376 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

1889. 

Rev.  J.  Wilson's  Statements  about  articles  on  "  Soci- 
ology "  in  the  Birmingham  Pilot.  Pall  Mall  Ga- 
zette, 12  April. 

Letters  on  the  Land  Question.  Times,  7,  11,  15,  19,  27 
November. 

1890. 

"  Absolute  Political  Ethics."  Nineteenth  Century  for 
January.  (Essays,  iii.,  217.) 

"Reasoned  Savagery  so-called."  Daily  Telegraph,  7 
February. 

"  The  Inheritance  of  Acquired  Characters."  Nature,  6 
March. 

"  Panmixia."    Nature,  3  April. 

"  Our  Space  Consciousness."  Mind  for  July.  (Princi- 
ples of  Psychology,  ii.,  717.) 

"  The  Moral  Motive."  Guardian,  6  August.  (Princi- 
ples of  Ethics,  ii.,  446.) 

"  The  Origin  of  Music."    Mind  for  October. 

1891. 

"  From  Freedom  to  Bondage."    Introduction  to  A  Plea 

for  Liberty.     (Essays,  iii.,  445.) 
"  The  Society  for  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children." 

Pall  Mall  Gazette,  16  and  28  May. 
"  The    Origin    of    Music."    A    discussion.    Mind    for 

October. 

1892. 

Letter  to  Figaro  about  his  unfamiliarity  with  M.  Renan. 
Pall  Mall  Gazette,  20  October. 

Letter  on  the  sales  of  his  books.  Daily  Chronicle,  3  De- 
cember. 

1893. 

"  Social  Evolution  and  Social  Duty."  (Various  Frag- 
ments, p.  119.) 

377 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

"  The  Inadequacy  of  Natural  Selection."  Contempo- 
rary Review  for  February  and  March.  (Principles 
of  Biology,  i.,  602.) 

"  Professor  Weismann's  Theories."  Contemporary  Re- 
view for  May.  (Principles  of  Biology,  i.,  633.) 

"  A  Rejoinder  to  Professor  Weismann."  Contempo- 
rary Review  for  December.  (Principles  of  Biology, 
i.,  650.) 

"  Evolutionary  Ethics."  Athenaeum,  5  August.  (Vari- 
ous Fragments,  p.  111.) 

1894. 

"  Obituary  Notice  of  Professor  Tyndall."  Fortnightly 
Review  for  February. 

"  Parliamentary  Georgites."  Times,  20  February. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  122.) 

Letters  relating  to  the  Land  Question  Controversy. 
Daily  Chronicle,  August  to  September. 

"  Weismannism  Once  More."  Contemporary  Review 
for  October.  (Principles  of  Biology,  i.,  671.) 

"  A  Record  of  Legislation."  Times,  24  November. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  125.) 

"  The  Booksellers'  Trade  Union."  Times,  26  October. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  161.) 

"  The  Book  Trade."  Times,  30  October  and  6  Novem- 
ber. (Various  Fragments,  pp.  163,  167.) 

"  The  Bookselling  Question."  Times,  21  November. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  169.) 

"  Publishers,  Booksellers,  and  the  Public."  Times,  24 
October.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  156.) — Athe- 
naum,  24  November.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  171.) 
— 29  December.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  174.) — 
The  Author,  December.  (Various  Fragments,  p. 
177.) 

"  Origin  of  Classes  among  the  '  Parasol  '  Ants." 
Nature,  6  December.  (Principles  of  Biology,  i., 
687.) 

378 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

1895. 

"  Herbert  Spencer  on  the  Land  Question."  (Various 
Fragments,  p.  196.) 

"  The  Antiquity  of  the  Medical  Profession."  Nature, 
27  June. 

"  Mr.  Balfour's  Dialectics."  Fortnightly  Review  for 
.  June. 

"  The  Nomenclature  of  Colours."    Nature,  29  August. 

Note  on  the  Ethical  Motive.  Nineteenth  Century  Re- 
view for  September. 

"  American  Publishers."  Times,  21  September.  (Vari- 
ous Fragments,  p.  236.) 

"  Heredity  Once  More."  Contemporary  Review  for 
October. 

Letter  on  Canadian  Copyright.     Times,  21  October. 

"  Lord  Salisbury  on  Evolution."  Nineteenth  Century 
Review  for  November. 

"  The  Board  of  Trade  and  Railway  Station  Boards." 
Times,  2  December.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  235.) 

On  Mr.  Howard  Collins'  letter  suggesting  a  portrait. 
Times,  14  December. 

1896. 

"  Dr.  Bridges 's  Criticisms."  Positivist  Review  for 
January. 

"  Anglo-American  Arbitration."  Letter  read  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Queen's  Hall,  3  March.  (Various  Frag- 
ments, p.  128.) 

"  Against  the  Metric  System."  Times,  4,  7,  9,  25  April. 
(Various  Fragments,  p.  130.) 

Letter  on  Mr.  Bramwell  Booth's  charges  of  Inconsist- 
ency. Times,  17  December. 

1897. 

Clearing  himself  of  seeming  implication  of  "  positive  or 
negative  defect  of  quotation."  Fortnightly  Re- 
view for  January. 

379 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

"  The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Criticisms."    Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury for  May. 


1898. 

Letters  on  "  Primitive  Religious  Ideas."  Literature,  5 
and  19  February.  Spectator,  23  July. 

"  A  State  Burden  on  Authors."  Times,  9  and  16  Feb- 
ruary. (Various  Fragments,  p.  220.) 

Letter  on  "  Mr.  Mallock's  Representation  of  his  Views." 
Literature,  2  April. 

The  Times  Art  Critic  on  the  Herkomer  portrait.  Times, 
5  May. 

"  Cell  Life  and  Cell  Multiplication."  Natural  Science 
for  May. 

"  Stereo-Chemistry  and  Vitalism."    Nature,  20  October. 

"  Asymmetry  and  Vitalism."     Nature,  10  November. 

"  What  is  Social  Evolution?  "  Nineteenth  Century  for 
September.  (Various  Fragments,  p.  181.) 


1899. 

"  The   Duke   of   Argyll   and   Mr.    Herbert    Spencer." 

Nature,  12  January. 

"  Prof.  Meldola's  Explanation."    Nature,  26  January. 
Mr.    Crozier's   Charge   of   Materialism.    Literature,   21 

January  and  11  February. 
"  Publishing  on  Commission."    Literature,  4  February. 

(Various  Fragments,  p.  217.) 
"  The  Metric  System  Again."     Times,  28  March,  4,  8, 

13  April.     (Various  Fragments,  p.  205.) 
"  Professor  Ward  on  '  Naturalism  and  Agnosticism.'  ' 

Fortnightly  Review  for  December. 
Letter    on    a    misrepresentation    of    Spencer's    Ethics. 

Spectator,  16  December. 
Letter  to  Mr.  Leonard  Courtney  on  the  South  African 

War.     (Various  Fragments,  p.  223.) 
380 


LIST  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  WRITINGS 

1900. 

On  the  South  African  War.  Speaker,  13  January; 
Morning  Leader,  5  February.  (Various  Fragments, 
p.  224.) 

"  Professor  Ward's  Rejoinder."  Fortnightly  Review 
for  April. 

"  An  Inhumanity."  Times,  25  July.  (Various  Frag- 
ments, p.  225.) 

"  Genesis  of  the  Vertebrate  Column."  Nature,  25 
October. 

1901. 

Letter  on  Space  Consciousness,  with  reference  to  Dr. 
Tolver  Preston's  statement.  Mind  for  January. 

1902. 

"  The   Spread  of   Small  Pox."    Signed  "  Observer," 

Daily  News,  18  January. 
"  Ethical  Lectureships."    Ethics,  1  March. 
The  Education  Bill.    Daily  News,  8  April. 
Sir   Michael   Foster   as   M.P.    for   London   University. 

Times,  28  May. 


381 


APPENDIX   D 
ACADEMIC  AND  OTHER  HONOURS  » 

1871. 

University  of  St.  Andrews.     Lord  Rector. 
University  of  St.  Andrews.    Doctor  of  Laws. 
St.   Andrews  Medical   Graduates'   Association.     Hono- 
rary Member. 

1874. 

Royal  Society.     Fellow. 

University  of  Edinburgh.    Lord  Rector. 

1875. 
University  of  Aberdeen.    Lord  Rector. 

1876. 

Reale  Accademia  dei  Lincei,  Rome.    Member. 
London  Dialectical  Society.     President. 

1880. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  Turin.     Correspondent. 

1882. 
Royal  Society  of  Naples.     Correspondent. 

1  With  a  few  exceptions  these  proffered  honours  were  declined. 
In  cases  where  a  mark  of  honour  had  been  conferred  before 
obtaining  his  consent,  he  made  no  use  of  the  distinction. 

382 


ACADEMIC  AND  OTHER  HONOURS 

1883. 

Institut  de  France.     Correspondent. 

Institucion    Libre    de    Ensenanza,    Madrid.     Honorary 

Professor. 

American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia.     Fellow. 
Twilight  Club,  New  York.     Member. 
Birmingham  Natural  History  and  Microscopical  Society. 

Vice-President. 

1885. 

Society    of    Physiological    Psychology,    Paris.     Corre- 
spondent. 

1888. 

University    of    Bologna.    Doctor    of    Philosophy    and 

Letters. 
Neurological  Society  of  London.    Honorary  Member. 

1889. 
Royal  Danish  Academy.     Member. 

1891. 
Royal  Academy  of  Belgium.    Associate. 

1892. 
Scientific  Society  of  Athens.     Member. 

1895. 

Royal  Order  "  Pour  le  Merite." 
Imperial  Academy  of  Vienna.     Member. 
Royal  Lombardian  Institute,  Milan.    Member. 

1896. 

University  of  Buda  Pesth.     Doctor. 
Associazione  Educativa  Spenceriana,  Rome.     Honorary 
President. 

383 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

1897. 

Psychological  Society  of  Moscow.    Member. 
University  of  Cambridge.    Doctor  of  Science. 
University  of  Edinburgh.    Doctor  of  Laws. 
International     Peace     Association  —  Lombard     Union. 
Honorary  President. 

1901. 
British  Academy  of  Letters. 

1903. 
University  of  London.     Doctor  of  Literature. 


384 


APPENDIX   E 

THE  NEBULAR  HYPOTHESIS 
To  the  Editor  of  The  Fortnightly  Review. 1 

SIR, — Often  in  the  heat  of  controversy  things  are  said 
which,  whether  true  or  not,  should  be  left  unsaid.  Some- 
what irritated  by  Professor  Ward's  expression  "  A  fugi- 
tive essay,"  I  named  some  facts  in  a  way  suggesting 
interpretations  which  I  overlooked.  Only  when  I  saw 
the  note  after  publication  did  I  perceive  the  construction 
that  would  be  put  upon  it.  What  mental  lapse  caused 
so  great  an  oversight  I  cannot  understand;  but  a  shat- 
tered nervous  system  entails  countless  evils — failure  of 
judgment  being  one. 

Though  the  note  cannot  now  be  cancelled,  it  is  not  too 
late  to  correct  one  of  its  expressions.  It  is  between 
forty  and  fifty  years  since  the  period  referred  to,  and 
I  was  incautious  enough  to  speak  from  memory.  I  said 
that  the  belief  that  the  nebulas  are  remote  galaxies  was 
current  among  astronomers.  I  should  have  said  some 
astronomers.  As  will  be  seen  on  turning  to  the  essay, 
I  quoted  a  relevant  passage  from  Humboldt's  Cosmos. 
As  he  was  in  touch  with  Continental  astronomers,  and 
was  in  fact  presenting  the  current  astronomical  conclu- 
sions, his  representation  of  nebulas  as  remote  galaxies 
was  manifestly  held  by  at  least  some  of  them.  Doubt- 
less it  was  the  wide  circulation  of  Cosmos  during  the 
fifties  (I  quoted  from  the  seventh  edition)  which  dif- 

1  See  Chap,  xxvi.,  p.  185,  note.  It  was  arranged  that  this 
letter  should  be  put  in  type,  but  that  it  should  not  be  published 
in  the  Fortnightly  if  Professor  Ward  did  not  make  a  move.  The 
occasion  for  its  appearance  in  the  Review  not  having  arisen,  it 
is  now  published  for  the  first  time. 

385 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER 

fused  this  belief,  and  caused  its  acceptance  as  one  which 
astronomers  had  established.  Hence  it  happened  that 
in  1857-8  any  one  who  still  adhered  to  "  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis  "  was  smiled  at.  It  was  this  which  prompted 
the  essay  in  question,  and  gave  its  original  title  "  Recent 
Astronomy  and  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  ";  its  primary 
purpose  being  to  show  the  illegitimacy  of  the  inferences 
drawn  from  Lord  Rosse's  disclosures.  This  should  not, 
indeed,  have  needed  showing.  As  far  back  as  1849,  Sir 
John  Herschel,  in  a  description  of  the  nebula?,  had  put 
together  facts  which,  when  duly  considered,  sufficed  to 
show  the  fallacy  of  the  current  belief.  But  he  made  no 
reference  to  this  belief;  and  though  its  untruth  was 
readily  to  be  inferred,  the  inference  was  not  generally 
drawn.  In  the  essay  just  named  I  quoted  this  passage 
from  Sir  John  Herschel,  appending  the  remark  that  it 
furnished  "  another  reductio  ad  absurdum  "  of  the  be- 
lief. Let  me  add  that  the  question  at  issue  was  not  one 
of  mathematics,  nor  of  mathematical  physics,  nor  of 
physical  astronomy.  It  was  simply  a  question  of  gen- 
eral reasoning. 

There  is  an  error  in  the  closing  part  of  my  last  letter 
which  I  must  rectify.  I  had  referred  to  a  passage  from 
Sir  John  Herschel 's  Outlines  expressing  the  belief  that 
in  clusters  of  stars  having  partially  opposing  impulses 
there  must  occur  collisions ;  but  that  after  such  collisions 
there  must  ultimately  arise  a  circulation  of  a  permanent 
character.  Since  globular  clusters,  like  others,  are 
formed  of  stars  which,  so  far  as  appears,  have  opposing 
impulses,  I  assumed  that  all  of  these  were  included  in 
the  statement.  I  had  before  me  at  the  time  the  second 
volume  of  Dr.  Isaac  Roberts 's  Photographs  of  Stars, 
Star-Clusters,  and  Nebulae,  in  which,  at  pp.  1730-8,  it  is 
shown,  both  by  the  photographs  and  the  descriptions, 
that  those  called  globular  clusters  are  in  course  of  con- 
centration— that  is,  are  not  in  moving  equilibrium  (glob- 
ular is  a  misleading  word,  since  it  connotes  a  definite 
limit,  which  nowhere  exists)  ;  and  I  was  the  more  led 
386 


THE  NEBULAR  HYPOTHESIS 

thus  to  regard  them  by  Sir  John  Herschel's  own  state- 
ment respecting  diffused  and  globular  clusters,  that  "  it 
is  impossible  to  say  where  one  species  ends  and  the  other 
begins  "  (Outlines,  p.  639).  Hence,  it  never  occurred 
to  me  that  he  assumed  some  of  the  globular  clusters  to 
be  already  in  a  state  of  moving  equilibrium;  nor  do  I 
understand  now  for  what  reason  (save  the  theological 
one  named)  he  thus  assumed  them.  This,  however,  is 
beside  the  question,  which  is  whether  he  did  so  assume 
them;  and  here  closer  study  of  his  words  obliges  me  to 
admit  that  I  was  wrong. 

This  admission,  however,  does  not  in  the  least  touch 
the  main  issue.  In  opposition  to  a  view  I  had  expressed, 
Professor  Ward  said  that  "  the  little  that  is  known  con- 
cerning the  distribution  and  motion  of  our  Sidereal  Sys- 
tem points  clearly  to  the  existence  of  stable  arrange- 
ments comparable  to  that  of  the  Solar  System,  but  of 
greater  complexity  ' ' ;  and  he  asserts  that,  in  the  passage 
I  have  quoted,  "  this  view  is  maintained  "  by  Sir  John 
Herschel.  My  reply  was  that  the  passage  makes  no 
reference  to  our  Sidereal  System,  either  directly  or  by 
implication,  but  only  to  extremely  minute  components 
of  it — telescopic  star-clusters.  And  now  to  this  negative 
proof  of  misrepresentation  I  have  to  add  positive  proof; 
for  on  pp.  630-1,  Sir  John  Herschel  discusses  the  spec- 
ulations that  had  been  ventured  respecting  the  rotation 
of  our  Sidereal  System,  and  after  rejecting  the  only 
definite  one  named,  that  of  Madler,  expresses  his  own 
neutrality,  and  thinks  that  an  opinion  can  be  formed 
only  after  some  thirty  or  forty  years  of  a  special  class 
of  observations. 

HERBERT  SPENCER. 

Brighton, 

April  18th,  1900. 


387 


INDEX 


ABBOT,  F.  E.,  American  critic, 
i.  170,  189 

Aberdeen  'Free  Press,  i.  384 

Aberdeen  University,  Spencer's 
refusal  of  honours,  i.  245 
seq. 

Abney,  Sir  W.  de  W.,  ii.  99 

Aborigines'  Protection  Society, 
ii.  21 

"Absolute,  The":  Sir  John 
Herschel  on,  i.  127;  in 
ethics,  ii.  28  seq. 

Abydos,  i.  274 

Acade"mie  des  Sciences  Morales, 
etc.,  Paris,  i.  311  seq. 

Academy,  The,  i.  267;  ii.  136 

Accademia  dei  Lincei,  Rome,  i. 
258 

Achilles,  as  the  ideal  of  Chris- 
tians, ii.  122 

Achranich  (see  Ardtornish) 

Acquired  Characters,  contro- 
versy concerning  inheri- 
tance of,  i.  360;  ii.  45  seq., 
205 

Acton,  Lord  [First  Baron],  i. 
262,  357 

Acts  of  Parliament,  scheme  for 
tabulating,  ii.  8  seq. 

Adamson,  Prof.  Robert,  ii.  99 

Aesthetic  Progress  (originally 
included  in  Spencer's 
scheme  for  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy), ii.  88 

Afghan  war,  ii.  121 

Agassiz'  opinion  of  Spencer,  i. 
198' 

Agnosticism,  i.   105,  340  seq.; 


Spencer's  change  from  The- 
ism to,  ii.  119  seq.,  249; 
attitude  to  believers,  ii.  200 
seq. 

Airlie,  Lord,  i.  294 

Airy,  Sir  G.  B.  (Astronomer 
Royal)  :  early  correspond- 
ence with,  ii.  157 

Alcock,  Sir  Rutherford:  appre- 
ciation of  Descriptive  So- 
ciology, i.  229 

Alexander,  Prof.  S.,  ii.  239 

Alexandria,  i.  272,  274 

Alger,  William  R.,  American 
author:  expression  of  sym- 
pathy with  Spencer,  i.  168 

Alglave,  French  translator,  i. 
265 

Allbutt,  Prof.  T.  Clifford,  ii. 
239 

Allen,  Grant,  i.  280;  ii.  99; 
writes  eulogistic  verses,  i. 
227;  Charles  Darwin,  i. 
329;  visits  to  and  from,  i. 
379;  ii.  142;  championship 
of  Spencer,  ii.  91 ;  death,  ii. 
143;  intellectual  qualities, 
ib. :  "  Personal  Reminis- 
cences "  of  Spencer,  ii.  246. 
Letter  to,  ii.  91 

Alphabet,  Spencer's  scheme  for 
natural,  i.  47 

Alton,  E.  H. :  compiler  of  De- 
scriptive Sociology,  ii.  196 
note 

Altruism,  A.  R.  Wallace  on  gen- 
esis of,  i.  265 

Alviella  (see  Goblet  d'Alviella) 


389 


INDEX 


America:  Spencer's  literary  re- 
lations, i.  128,  133,  138, 
143  seq.,  211,  217,  286;  ii. 
88,  135;  first  subscribers 
to  Synthetic  Philosophy,  i. 
131;  Civil  War,  i.  138,  191, 
276;  practical  sympathy 
with  Spencer,  i.  167,  217, 
290;  ii.  231;  Spencer's 
proposed  dedication  of  phi- 
losophy to  friends  in,  i. 
193 ;  International  Scien- 
tific Series,  i.  209;  political 
machinery,  i.  211;  attitude 
towards  Spencer,  i.  268, 
303,  338;  ii.  105;  Spen- 
cer's visit,  i.  271,  289,  299; 
ii.  39;  copyright  question, 
i.  278,  354,  363  seq.;  po- 
litical state,  i.  279;  Twi- 
light Club,  i.  307;  Jap- 
anese relations,  ii.  15; 
Chinese  Immigration,  ii. 
17;  Henry  George's  attack 
on  Spencer,  ii.  37;  testi- 
monial, ii.  39;  admiration 
of  "smart"  men,  ii.  78; 
"  dreadful  catastrophe  "  im- 
pending, ib.;  Spencer's 
pamphlet  on  metric  sys- 
tem, ii.  94;  arbitration,  ii. 
94;  war  with  Spain,  ii. 
135;  doctor  asks  for  be- 
quest of  Spencer's  brain,  ii. 
259;  Declaraton  of  Inde- 
pendence, ii.  354 

Amphimixis,  Weisinann's  the- 
ory, ii.  56 

Amusements,  recommended  by 
Spencer  to  his  friends,  ii. 
297 

Anarchist,  use  of  term  by  an 
individualist,  ii.  77 

Ancestor  Worship,  ecclesiasti- 
cal institutions  derived 
from,  ii.  360 


Andrews,  Prof.,  physicist,  ii. 
165,  320 

Animism,  controversy  with  E. 
B.  Tylor  concerning,  ii.  63 
seq.,  134,  193 

Anti-Aggression  League,  i.  295 
seq.;  ii.  95,  136,  301 

Anti-Gambling  League,  ii.  23, 
66 

Antiquity,  veneration  for,  i.  44, 
59 

Anti-Vaccination  League,  ii. 
152 

Ants,  differentiation  of  classes, 
ii.  132 

Appleton,  D.,  &  Co.:  Spencer's 
American  publishers,  i. 
144,  290,  347  seq.;  ii.  44 

Appleton,  W.  H.,  i.  269,  278; 
ii.  186 

A  priori  method  in  Spencer's 
philosophy,  ii.  277  seq. 

Arbitration,  Anglo-American, 
ii.  95 

Architect,  The,  i.  377;  ii.  376 

Architect,  Engineer  and  Sur- 
veyor, ii.  368;  "Archi- 
tectural Precedent,"  paper 
by  Spencer  on,  i.  44,  378; 
ii.  368 

Architecture,  often  spoiled  by 
excess,  ii.  137 

Ardtornish  (formerly  Achran- 
ich) ,  Argyllshire,  Spencer's 
visits  to,  i.  106,  123,  131, 
134,  143,  152,  161,  180, 
227,  239,  253  seq.,  266,  288, 
315,  412  seq.;  ii.  222;  a 
last  reminder  of,  ii.  218 
(illustration  opp.  page  i. 
412) 

Arena,  ii.  3 

Argoed  The,  Monmouthshire, 
i.  383,  385 

Argyll,  [Eighth]  Duke  of,  ii. 
97;  letter  to,  ii.  49 


390 


INDEX 


Aristotle,  Spencer's  knowledge 
of  his  writings,  ii.  147 

Arnold,  Matthew,  i.  278;  ii. 
199,  205 

Arnold,  Dr.  [Thomas],  i.  397 

Arnott's  smoke  -  consuming 

grate,  i.  107 

Art:  French  architectures  and 
furniture,  i.  99;  Spencer's 
scheme  for  classifying  ar- 
tistic characters  of  paint- 
ings, ii.  88  seq.;  Ruskin's 
views,  ii.  127;  need  for  re- 
straint, ii.  137 

"  Art  of  Education,"  ii.  320, 
370 

Artisans  (see  Working  Classes) 

Assouan,   i.   273 

Astronomy:  in  scheme  for  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy,  ii.  91, 
156 ;  Spencer's  writings 
concerning,  ii.  156  seq., 
329;  genesis  of  asteroids, 
ii.  330  seq. 

Atheism,  repudiated  by  Spen- 
cer, i.  105  (v.  ii.  249,  370) 

AtheniEum,  The,  (Club)  :  i.  188, 
286,  319,  390,  398;  ii. 
129,  302;  Spencer's  elec- 
tion, ii.  253  seq.;  Spen- 
cer's attachment  to,  ii. 
253  seq.;  his  qualities 
as  a  club-man,  ii.  254 
seq.;  Galton's  smoke-room 
talks  with  Spencer,  ii.  262 ; 
Spencer's  impracticable  ad- 
ministration, ii.  272  seq. 

Athen&um  (periodical),  i.  105, 
137  seq.,  267;  ii.  36,  371, 
375,  378 

Athleticism,  ii.  24 

Australia:  Press  attitude  to 
"  Religious  Retrospect, 
etc.,"  i.  339;  Spencerian 
Society  in  Melbourne,  ii. 
209 


Author,  The,  ii.  378 

Authority:  women  always  sup- 
porters of,  i.  182;  honorary 
titles  strengthen,  i.  314 
(see  also  Herbert  Spencer, 
Characteristics ) 

Autobiography  of  Spencer:  in 
relation  to  this  work,  vii. 
seq.,  initiation,  i.  234; 
lacuna,  i.  273;  writing  of, 
i.  317;  contemplated  publi- 
cation of  part  during  life, 
i.  343;  coincidences,  ii. 
130.  (Frequent  other  ref- 
erences throughout  this 
work ) 

Avebury,  Lord   (see  Lubbock) 

Avenue  Road,  No.  64,  St. 
John's  Wood,  Spencer's  me"- 
nage  at,  ii.  22  seq.,  26  seq., 
75,  95,  128  seq. 

BABBAGE,  CHABLES,  i.  148 

Bacon,  Francis :  Spencer's 
knowledge  of  his  writings, 
ii.  146;  application  of  say- 
ing by,  ii.  148 

Baden-Powell,  Sir  G.  S.,  ii.  99, 
157 

Baer,  K.  von :  formula  of  devel- 
opment, ii.  322 

Bailliere,  French  publisher,  i. 
257,  262,  274 

Bain,  Prof.  Alexander:  i.  106, 
150  seq.,  286,  345;  ii.  99; 
Emotions  and  the  Will,  i. 
124,  240;  ii.  333;  Mill  on 
his  psychological  work,  i. 
150;  Spencer's  regard  for, 
i.  151  seq.;  ii.  201,  220, 
221;  founder  of  Mind,  i. 
229;  false  report  of  death, 
i.  251;  Mental  and  Moral 
Science,  i.  259;  review  of 
"Data  of  Ethics,"  i.  267; 
opinion  of  Spencer's  last 


391 


INDEX 


book,    ii.    205;     death,    ii. 
221 ;     Spencer's     apprecia- 
tion,  ii.   221.     Letters   to, 
i.    151   seq.;  ii.   201,  220; 
letter  from,  ii.  220 
Bain,  Mrs.,  ii.  221 
Baker,  Miss,  i.  414.    Letter  to, 

ii.  9 

Balfour,      Rt.      Hon.      Arthur 
James:    ii.    228;    criticism 
of  Spencer's  philosophy  at 
Glasgow,  ii.  47;   Spencer's 
article  on   "  Mr.   Balfour's 
Dialectics,"    ii.     79,     379; 
visit  to  Spencer,  ii.  97;  co- 
operation in  testimonial  to 
Spencer,  ii.  97,  99.    Letters 
to,  ii.  106,  195 
Balfour  [F.  M.],  i.  301 
Ball,  Sir  Robert  S.,  ii.  99 
Bancroft,  George,  i.  131 
Barbarism,  recrudescence  of,  i. 

135 
Barnett,    Rev.    S.    (Canon),    i. 

272 

Bastian,  Dr.  Henry  Charlton: 
Spencer's  trustee,  x.;  co- 
operation in  this  work,  ib.; 
letter  to,  on  booksellers, 
ii.  70;  testimonial  to  Spen- 
cer, ii.  97;  opinion  of  Her- 
komer's  portrait,  ii.  113; 
correspondence  concerning 
Norman  Lockyer's  specula- 
tions, ii.  168;  visit  to 
Spencer  in  his  illness,  ii. 
217 

Bastian,  Mrs.  Charlton,  ii.  131 
Basutoland  question,  i.  272 
Bath    and    West    of    England 

Magazine,  i.  25;  ii.  367 
Beard,  Dr.  George  M.,  i.  306 
Beauty,  substantiality  a  factor 

in,  i.  99 

Beckett,  Sir  Edward  (Lord 
Grimthorpe)  :  criticism  of 


Spencer's  philosophy,  i. 
319 

Beddard,  F.  E.,  F.R.S.,  ii.  99 

Beddoe,  John,  M.D.,  ii.  99 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward:  i.  131; 
appreciation  of  Spencer,  i. 
168,  336 

Beethoven,  L.  van,  i.  414;  ii. 
137 

Bellows,  Henry  W.,  i.  131 

Bell,  Graham,  i.  257 

Benn,  Alfred  W. :  unpublished 
review  of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, ii.  123.  Letter  to, 
ii.  124  seq. 

Bentham,  Jeremy :  Spencer's 
knowledge  of  his  writings, 
ii.  146 

Bepton,  Sussex,  ii.  189,  302 

Besant,  Sir  Walter,  ii.  99 

Betting,  ii.  23 

Bevington,  Miss  L.  S.,  i.  287; 
ii.  136 

Bibliotheque  Pacificiste  Inter- 
nationale, ii.  226 

Billiards:  saying  falsely  at- 
tributed to  Spencer,  i.  398 
seq. 

Binding-pin:  appliance  devised 
by  Spencer,  i.  67;  ii.  311 

Biography:  popularity  of,  ii. 
93;  what  should  be  in- 
cluded in  a  complete,  ii. 
304 

Biology:  Spencer's  early  inter- 
est in,  i.  82  seq.;  ii.  306; 
importance  of  physics,  i. 
125;  spontaneous  genera- 
tion, i.  190;  views  of  ex- 
perts on  Spencer's  work, 
i.  200;  interbreeding  of 
races,  ii.  17;  inheritance 
of  acquired  characters  or 
functionally-wrought  modi- 
fications, ii.  45,  324  seq.; 
its  study  essential  for  the 


392 


INDEX 


ethical  teacher,  ii.  147; 
commencement  of  life  on 
the  earth,  ii.  182;  filiation 
of  Spencer's  ideas  in,  ii. 
315  seq.,  322  seq.,  326,  331, 
335  seq.;  a  priori  rea- 
soning, ii.  326;  first  use 
of  word  "  evolution,"  ii. 
331  note;  alleged  basis  for 
Sociology,  ii.  357  note 

Birks,  Canon,  i.  249 

Birmingham :  Complete  Suf- 
frage Conference,  i.  47; 
Pilot  newspaper,  i.  61, 
384 

Birmingham  and  Gloucester 
Railway(  afterwards  merged 
in  Midland  Railway)  : 
Spencer's  appointment  on, 
i.  29;  ii.  308 

Birmingham  Natural  History 
and  Microscopical  Society, 
i.  307,  333 

Bitter  Cry  of  the  Outcasts  of 
London,  i.  325 

Black,  William,  i.  286,  291 

Black  and  White,  ii.  194 

Blunt, ,  i.  362 

Blunt,  Wilfred  Scawen,  writes 
Satan  Absolved  at  Spen- 
cer's instigation,  ii.  138 
seq.  Letters  to,  ii.  136 
seq.,  192 

Boehm,  Sir  Edgar,  R.A.:  his 
bust  of  Spencer,  i.  326 

Boers:  policy  towards  outland- 
ers,  ii.  151;  relief  fund,  ii. 
210 

Bologna,  Italy,  i.  272 

Bologna,  University  of,  degree 
conferred  on  Spencer,  i. 
389 

Bonney,  Canon  T.  G.,  ii.  239 

Booksellers'  discounts  and  net 
prices,  i.  88,  220;  ii.  70, 
369,  378 


Booth,  W.  Bramwell,  attack  on 
Spencer,  ii.  Ill 

Bosanquet,  Bernard,  ii.  99 

Botha,  General  Louis,  letters 
to,  on  management  of  Boer 
Relief  Fund,  ii.  210 

Boughton  Monchelsea,  ii.  129 

Bourne,  H.  R.  Fox:  letter  to, 
on  the  Kanaka  Question  in 
Queensland,  ii.  21 

Bournemouth,  i.  373 

Bowditch,  J.  I.,  i.  131 

Bowen,  Sir  Charles,  i.  357 

Bowen,  F.,  i.  131 

Bowman,  Thomas,  Warden  of 
Merton,  ii.  239 

Boys,  Prof.  C.  V.,  ii.  99 

Bradbrook  [Sir],  E.  W.,  ii.  99 

Bradlaugh,  Charles,  i.  295 

Brant-Sero,  Mr.  (Iroquois), 
proposes  translation  of 
Education  into  Mohawk, 
ii.  194 

Bray,  Mrs.,  letter  to,  ii.  208 

Brett,  John,  A.R.A.,  i.  377 

Brettell,  Settlement  of  Immi- 
grants so  named,  at  Stour- 
bridge,  i.  1 

Brettell,  Jane  (see  Holmes) 

Brettell,  Jeremiah,  i.  2 

Brettell,  John,  i.  2 

Brettell,  Joseph,  of  Wordsley, 
Spencer's  descent  from,  i.  2 

Brettell,  Joseph,  Wesleyan 
Minister,  i.  2 

Bridge,  James,  Spencer's  secre- 
tary, i.  296 

Bright,  Rt.  Hon.  John,  M.  P., 
i.  71,  276.  Letters  to,  i. 
294,  297 

Bright,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Franck,  ii. 
240 

Brighton,  Sussex:  i.  98,  107, 
130,  256,  286,  296,  319; 
368;  ii.  58;  Spencer's  resi- 
dence at,  ii.  130,  197;  Free 


393 


INDEX 


Church  meeting,  ii.  214; 
official  mark  of  respect  at 
Spencer's  funeral,  ii.  228 

Brighton  and  Hove  Natural 
History  Society,  ii.  228 

British  Academy  of  Letters,  ii. 
199 

British  Association  Meetings,  i. 
227,  288;  Lord  Salisbury's 
address,  ii.  73 

British  and  Foreign  Medico- 
Chirurgical  Review,  i.  106 ; 
ii.  331,  371  seq. 

British  Library  of  Political 
Science,  ii.  125 

British  Quarterly  Review,  i.  76, 
97,  111,  113,  138,  218;  ii. 
321,  371 

Brodrick,  Hon.  George  C.,  letter 
to,  i.  406 

Brooklyn  Ethical  Association, 
i.  392,  393;  ii.  120 

Brough,  Prof.,  letter  to,  ii.  147 
note 

Browning,  Oscar,  i.  262 

Browning,  Robert:  i.  279;  ii. 
137 ;  lines  from  "  The  Lost 
Leader"  applied  by  H. 
George  to  Spencer,  ii.  39, 
40 

Bruce,  Mr.  [S.  Noble],  i.  255 

Brunton,  [Sir]  T.  Lauder,  ii.  99 

Bryant,  Edwin  W.,  St.  Louis, 
U.SA.,  i.  230 

Buchanan,  Robert:  ii.  136; 
Spencer's  appreciation  and 
criticism  of  The  Outcast,  i. 
410;  exposure  of  Christian 
hypocrisy,  i.  411;  defence 
of  Spencer  in  Huxley  con- 
troversy, i.  410  seq.;  ii.  32 
seq.;  death,  ii.  195.  Let- 
ter to,  the  "  higher  social- 
ism," ii.  33 

Buckle,  Thomas  Henry,  on  pro- 
gramme of  Synthetic  Phi- 


losophy, i.  126.  Letter 
from,  i.  113 

Buda  Pesth,  University  of,  ii. 
81 

Bunsen,  Baron,  ii.  185,  331 

Burdeau,  Auguste,  Vice-Presi- 
dent  of  the  French  Cham- 
ber, and  translator  of 
Spencer's  Essays,  ii.  66 

Burdeau,  Mme.,  letter  to,  ii.  66 

Burgess,  J.  B.,  R.A.,  his  por- 
trait of  Spencer,  ii.  113 

Busk,  Dr.  (George),  i.  161, 
163,  257,  258 

Butler,  Mrs.  Josephine,  letter 
to,  on  coercive  methods  in 
social  affairs,  ii.  149 

Buzzard,  Dr.  Thomas:  ii.  65; 
certification  of  nurses,  ii.  6 

CAINE,  HALL,  Canadian  copy- 
right, ii.  89 

Caine,  W.  S.,  M.P.,  ii.  66 

Caird,  Dr.  Edward,  Master  of 
Balliol,  ii.  153 

Cairnes,  J.  E.,  i.  229.  Letter 
to,  Laissez-faire,  i.  212 

Cairo,  i.  272,  274,  281 

Calderon,  Philip  H.,  R.A.,  i. 
377 

Calderwood,  Prof.,  Edinburgh, 
i.  272 

Cambridge,  University  of:  pro- 
posal to  confer  degree,  ii. 
107;  Hegelianism,  ii.  201; 
proposed  memorial  to  Spen- 
cer in  Westminster  Abbey 
(signatures),  ii.  239 

Campbell,  Lord,  i.  88 

Canada :  copyright  question, 
89;  Spencer's  visit,  i. 
300 

Carlyle,  Thomas:  i.  293;  Crom- 
well, i.  68;  Spencer's  opin- 
ion of,  ii.  93,  198;  hia 
opinion  of  Spencer,  ii.  93; 


394 


INDEX 


repudiation  of  "  science  of 
history,"  ii.  352 
Carnarvon,  Earl  of,  ii.  86 
Carnegie,   Andrew:    ii.   9;    gift 
of    piano    to    Spencer,    i. 
407,  414;  views  concerning 
wealth,   ib.;   asks   Spencer 
to  sit  for  his  portrait,  ii. 
104,  112;  thoughts  of  Spen- 
cer in  his  illness,  ii.  221; 
request    for    memento,    ii. 
223  seq.   Letters  to,  i.  407 ; 
ii.     104     seq.,     148,     212, 
221 
Carpenter,  W.  B.,  Principles  of 

Physiology,  i.  80 
Carr's  Dynamometer,  i.  34 
Carus,    Prof.    Victor:    ii.    66; 
translator,    ii.    150;    pays 
Spencer   the   highest   com- 
pliment  he   ever   received, 
ii.  150 

Gary,  Henry  C.,  i.  131 
Cause:    relativity    of    idea,    ii. 
124;    investigation    of,    an 
analytic  process,  ii.  305 
Gazelles,  Dr.  E. :  French  trans- 
lator   of    Spencer's    works, 
i.    169,    202,    295;    ii.    75; 
Introduction   to   Evolution 
Philosophy,  i.  202  seq.,  225 
seq. ;   relinquishes   transla- 
tion for  political   reasons, 
ii.     120;     Spencer     recom- 
mends  amusements   to,   ii. 
267.      Letters    to,    i.    203 
seq.;  ii.  120  seq.,  166 
Cecil,  Lord  Arthur,  i.  266 
Cecil,  Lord  Lionel,  i.  266 
"  Ceremonial   Institutions  "    ( a 
division  of  Spencer's  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology),  i.  254, 
257,  267,  272,  317;  ii.  354 
Chadwick,   Rev.   J.   W.,  Brook- 
lyn:   on   Spencer's  charac- 
teristics,  ii.    261    seq.;   on 


Spencer's  philosophy,  ii. 
289  seq. 

Chamberlain,  Rt.  Hon.  Joseph: 
ii.  210;  Canadian  copy- 
right, ii.  89;  presence  at 
disestablishment  meeting 
recalled,  ii.  214 

Chambers,  Robert:  i.  86;  on 
Spencer's  population  the- 
ory, i.  83;  on  programme 
of  Synthetic  Philosophy,  i. 
126 

Chapin,  E.  H.,  i.  131 

Chapman,  Dr.  John,  i.  69,  75, 
83,  111,  114;  ii.  317,  323 

Character,  in  relation  to  poli- 
tics, ii.  7,  149  (v.  ii.  314, 
363) 

Chemistry,  evolution  of  ele- 
ments, ii.  168,  184 

Chesson,  F.  W.,  i.  292 

Children:  Spencer's  advice  to  a 
mother,  i.  382;  ii.  9  seq.; 
prevention  of  cruelty  to, 
i.  405  seq.  (See  also  Edu- 
cation ) 

China:  relations  with  foreign- 
ers, ii.  11;  Descriptive  So- 
ciology, ii.  196  note;  trans- 
lation of  Spencer's  work, 
ii.  207  note 

Christian  Examiner,  i.  168,  170 

Christianity:  attitude  of  clergy 
to  Spencer,  i.  269,  336, 
339;  ii.  23;  objection  to 
Spencer's  Study  of  Sociol- 
ogy at  Yale,  i.  276;  pro- 
fession and  practice  con- 
trasted, i.  293,411;  ii.  122, 
139,  153;  dissociation  of 
religion  and  ethics,  ii.  19; 
eternal  torment,  ii.  60;  re- 
lapse of  those  who  aban- 
don, ii.  212;  Spencer's 
attitude,  in  connection 
with  proposed  memorial  in 


395 


INDEX 


Westminster  Abbey,  ii.  242 
seq.;  in  private  life,  ii. 
250 

Church  of  England:  i.  42,  44; 
Arnold's  opinion,  ii.  205; 
disestablishment  scheme,  ii. 
214  seq. 

Church  Congress,  appreciation 
of  Spencer  at,  i.  268 

Cirencester,  i.  103 

Civil  Engineer  and  Architects' 
Journal,  i.  33,  43;  ii.  367 

Civilisation,  conception  of,  in 
Social  Statics,  ii.  314 

Clark,  Sir  Andrew,  Bart.:  testi- 
monial to,  i.  378;  read 
Spencer's  writings  as  a 
tonic,  ii.  291 

"  Classification  of  the  Sciences," 
i.  148;  ii.  91,  372 

Clifford,  Kingdon:  ii.  161,  165; 
lecture  on  mental  develop- 
ment, i.  188 

Cliftonville,  Margate,  ii.  65 

Clodd,  Edward:  ii.  99;  Memoir 
of  Grant  Allen,  ii.  143 

Clothing,  importance  of  proper 
distribution  over  body,  ii. 
10  seq. 

Cobden,  Richard:  character  de- 
velopment, i.  41 

Cockburn,  Lord  Chief  Justice: 
dictum  on  martial  law,  ii. 
192 

Coincidences :  importance  at- 
tached to,  ii.  64;  basis  for 
belief  in  the  supernatural, 
ii.  85;  estimation  of  proba- 
bilities, ii.  220 

Coit,  Dr.  Stan  ton:  correspond- 
ence on  ethical  movement, 
ii.  197  seq. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.:  Idea  of  Life, 
ii.  315,  318 

Collier,  James,  Spencer's  sec- 
retary, i.  194,  316;  Remi- 


niscences of  Spencer,  ii. 
246 

Collier,  Hon.  John,  i.  326 

Collins,  F.  Howard:  i.  307,  333; 
Epitome  of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, i.  384;  pamphlet 
and  correspondence  con- 
cerning inheritance  of  ac- 
quired characters,  ii.  44 
seq.;  proposal  for  portrait 
of  Spencer,  ii.  86,  379;  co- 
operation in  testimonial, 
ii.  109 ;  correspondence 
with  Bramwell  Booth,  ii. 
119  seq.  Letters  to,  ii. 
86  seq.,  87  seq.,  105,  108, 
116,  119,  198 

Cologne  Cathedral,  Spencer's 
opinion  of,  i.  93  seq. 

Colonial  federation,  ii.  24 

Colour  -  blindness,  frequency 
among  Quakers,  ii.  47 

Colours,  Spencer's  scheme  for 
nomenclature,  ii.  87 

Columbus^  Christopher,  Spen- 
cer's eulogy  of,  ii.  248 

Communism:  land  questions,  i. 
332;  tendency  to,  i.  317 
(see  also  Socialism) 

Compayre",  Gabriel,  ii.  212 

Complete  Suffrage  Union,  i.  46 
seq.,  61;  ii.  311 

Comte,  Auguste :  Spencer's  phil- 
osophical relations  to,  i. 
93,  96  seq.,  147  seq.,  172, 
202,  207  seq.,  344,  384;  ii. 
90  seq.,  321,  340;  meeting 
with,  i.  107;  influence  on 
English  scientific  thought, 
i.  149;  donation  to  Spencer 
from  his  executor,  i.  166; 
the  worship  of  humanity, 
i.  259 ;  Harrison-Spencer 
controversy,  339  seq.; 
Hector  Macpherson  on  his 
limited  conception  of  phi- 


396 


INDEX 


losophy,  ii.  282  seq.;  what 
Spencer  owed  to  him,  ii. 
320,  340 

Congregational  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, i.  78 

Congreve,  Richard,  letter  from, 
on  Harrison-Spencer  con- 
troversy, i.  341 

Consciousness,  evolution  of,  ex- 
emplified, i.  238  seq. 

"  Consciousness  under  Chloro- 
form," i.  255,  259;  ii.  374 

Conservation  of  Energy:  Spen- 
cer's criticism  of  term,  i. 
232 

Conservative  Party,  Spencer's 
attitude,  ii.  3 

"Constitution  of  the  Sun,"  ii. 
165,  341,  372 

Contemporary  Review,  i.  196 
seq.,  211  seq.,  249,  282 
seq.,  289,  301,  317  seq., 
327;  ii.  49,  140,  373  seq. 

Conway,  Moncure:  i.  192;  pro- 
posal for  "supreme  court 
of  civilisation,"  ii.  135. 
Letters  to,  ii.  61,  135  seq., 
191 

Cooper,  J.  Astley,  letter  to,  ii. 
24 

Co-operation,  ii.  65 

Copyright :  international,  i. 
210,  278,  354,  355,  363; 
Royal  Commission,  i.  251; 
ii.  195,  374;  Canada,  ii.  89 
seq.  Letter  to  A.  J.  Bal- 
four  suggesting  legislative 
action,  ii.  195 

Cornhill  Magazine,  ii.  164 

Corn-Law  Repeal:  effect  on 
pauperism,  i.  212 

Correspondents,  examples  of  re- 
quests received  by  Spencer 
from,  ii.  188  seq. 

"  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  Spencer's 
objection  to  title,  i.  208 


"  County  Council  Tyranny," 
ii.  4 

Courtney,  Leonard  (now  Lord 
C.  of  Penwith):  ii.  97;  ad- 
dress at  Spencer's  funeral, 
ii.  228  seq.,  291.  Letter  to, 
on  relations  with  his  con- 
stituents, ii.  153  seq. 

Courtney,  Mrs.  Leonard  (now 
Lady  C.  of  Penwith,  ne'e 
Kate  Potter)  :  i.  272;  acts 
as  "  grundyometer,"  ii.  2 
seq.;  visit  to  Spencer  in 
his  illness,  ii.  148;  his  last 
letter,  ii.  226;  reminis- 
cences of  Spencer,  ii.  251 
seq.,  257  seq.,  273 

Coutant,  M.,  Paris,  ii.  226 

Craig-Sellar,  Mrs.,  i.  412  seq. 

Crawford  and  Balcarres,  Earl 
of,  ii.  173 

Cremer  [Sir]  W.  R.,  i.  297 

Crichton-Browne,  Sir  J.,  ii.  99 

Cripps,  Judy,  i.  383  (see  i.  396) 

Cripps,  Mrs.  W.  H.  (nee  Pot- 
ter) :  i.  373,  396.  Letter 
to,  on  care  of  her  children, 
i.  382 

Critics,  Spencer's  experience  of, 
i.  249,  267,  280;  ii.  132, 
138 

Croft,  W.  C.  (Liberty  and 
Property  Defence  League), 
letter  to,  i.  298 

Crookes,  Sir  William:  theory 
of  composition  of  elements, 
ii.  169  seq. 

Cross,  John  W.:  i.  113,  180, 
258,  285;  ii.  78;  Life  of 
George  Eliot,  i.  356;  ii. 
316.  Letter  to,  ii.  78 

Cross,  Mrs.  J.  W.  ("George 
Eliot,"  q.  v.) 

Cross,  Miss  Mary,  ii.  75 

Crucifixion,  tableau  vivant  of, 
at  St.  Cloud,  i.  99 


397 


INDEX 


Cunynghame,  H.  H.,  on  Crookes' 
theory  of  composition  of 
elements,  ii.  169 

Curtis,  George  W.,  i.  131 

DAILY  CHRONICLE,  ii.  66,  377; 

land  question,  ii.  43,  378 
Daily  News,  ii.  375,  381 
Daily  Telegraph,  i.  295;  ii.  32 

seq.,  377       . 

Dale,  A.  W.  W.,  Vice-Chan- 
cellor, Liverpool  Univer- 
sity, ii.  239 

Dalhousie,  Lady,  i.  316,  397 
Dalhousie,  Lord,  i.  316,  397 
Dallinger,  Dr.  W.  H.,  ii.  100 
Daniel,  Rev.  C.  H.  O.,  ii.  239 
Darrell,  Lionel,  i.  273 
Darwin,  Charles:  on  Spencer's 
biological  speculations,  i. 
113,  164;  effect  of  Origin 
of  Species  on  Spencer's 
recognition,  i.  184;  Descent 
of  Man  and  mental  evolu- 
tion, i.  196  seq.;  opinion 
of  Spencer,  i.  198  seq.; 
"  Pangenesis,"  i.  199 ;  death 
and  funeral,  i.  296;  Spen- 
cer's philosophical  relations 
to,  i.  315  seq.,  327,  329, 
342,  344;  ii.  4,  314,  334, 
349;  theory  on  music,  i. 
316;  "Factors  of  Organic 
Evolution,"  i.  359  seq.; 
use-inheritance,  ii.  45;  al- 
leged socialistic  implica- 
tions of  doctrines,  ii.  79; 
proposal  to  acquire  house 
at  Down  for  biological  pur- 
poses, ii.  117;  on  value  of 
speculation,  ii.  278.  Let- 
ters to,  i.  153,  196  seq., 
199,  212,  221;  letters  from, 
i.  113,  127 

Darwin,  Dr.  Erasmus,  i.  360 
Darwin,  Francis,  ii.  100 


Darwin,  Prof.  [Sir]  George  H.: 
ii.  100,  173.  Letters  to, 
i.  296;  ii.  118,  179  seq. 

Darwin,  W.  E.,  ii.  100 

"Data  of  Ethics"  (Part  I. 
of  Spencer's  Principles  of 
Ethics,  q.v.),  i.  257,  260 
seq.,  267,  282,  285;  Jap- 
anese translation,  i.  308 

Davidson,  Prof.  W.  L.,  ii. 
221 

De  Morgan,  William,  i.  280 

Debus,  Dr.  Heinrich,  i.  257 

Decimal  System,  i.  28;  ii.  94 

Deduction:  a  synthetic  process, 
ii.  307 ;  Huxley's  hatred  of, 
ii.  326;  his  remark  about 
Spencer's  proneness  to,  ii. 
263 

Deductive  Philosophy,  title  and 
scheme  proposed  for  omit- 
ted divisions  of  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  ii.  158  seq. 

Defford,  bridge  over  Avon  at, 
originates  nickname  for" 
Spencer,  i.  32 

Degrees   (see  Titles) 

Delmonico's,  New  York,  i.  299, 
301,  306 

Denmark:  official  invitation  to 
Spencer  to  write  on  Social 
Development,  ii.  208;  Royal 
Danish  Academy,  i.  389 

Derby:  i.  109,  121;  Spencer's 
grandfather  settles  in,  i.  3; 
Spencer's  birthplace,  i.  9; 
ii.  107;  Spencer's  home  in 
Wilmot  Street,  i.  12;  po- 
litical events,  i.  46  seq., 
70;  Spencer  Society,  ii. 
107 

Derby,  Earl  of  (Lord  Stanley)  : 
i.  280;  testimonial  to 
Spencer,  i.  120;  on  Spen- 
cer's Ethics,  i.  264 

Derby:    Countess  of:    reception 


398 


INDEX 


at  Foreign  Office,  i.  246 
seq. 

Derby  Mercury  (1790),  refer- 
ence to  Spencer's  grand- 
father in,  i.  3 

Descriptive  Sociology:  i.  185, 
194  seq.,  217  seq.,  290  seq.; 
ii.  354,  358;  Sir  R.  Al- 
cock's  appreciation,  i.  229; 
losses,  i.  352;  ii.  39;  dis- 
paragement, by  F.  Harri- 
son, i.  353;  Chinese  divi- 
sion, i.  394  note;  ii. 
196  note;  Spencer's  testa- 
mentary provisions,  ii. 
196;  new  divisions  in  prog- 
ress, ib.  note 

"  Development  Hypothesis,"  i. 
85;  ii.  319,  322,  369 

Development  Theory  (see  Evo- 
lution ) 

Devonshire,  the  Duke  of,  ii.  239 

Dewar,  Prof.  [Sir]  James,  ii. 
173 

Dickens,  Charles :  Christmas 
tale,  i.  69 

Disraeli,  Benjamin  [Earl  of 
Beaconsfield] ,  desire  to 
help  Spencer,  i.  119 

Dixon,  Hepworth,  editor  of 
Athenaeum,  i.  124 

Donaldson,  James,  Principal  of 
St.  Andrews  University, 
ii.  100 

Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth:  tab- 
ulation of  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, ii.  8.  Letters  to,  ii. 
67  seq. 

Dorking,  i.  379  seq. 

Dover:  i.  102;  design  for  land- 
ing pier,  ii.  55 

Downes,  Dr.  Arthur,  i.  363  seq. 

Draper,  J.  W.,  i.   131,  301 

Dreams,  fulfilment  of,  a  ques- 
tion of  coincidence,  ii.  64 

Drummond,  Prof.  Henry:  Nat- 


ural Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World,  i.  309;  alleged  pla- 
giarism, ii.  71  seq. 

Drunkenness,  outcry  against, 
i.  376 

Dublin,  impressions  of,  i.  192 

Dublin  Review,  i.  228 

Duncan,  Dr.  David  (the  au- 
thor) :  origin  of  this  work, 
vii. ;  Spencer's  secretary 
and  assistant,  i.  186  seq., 
194 

Duodecimals,  i.  47 

Dutch  Judge,  Spencer's  refusal 
to  meet,  at  Cairo,  ii.  258 

Dynamometer,  appliance  in- 
vented by  Spencer,  i.  32, 
34 

Dysart,  Earl  of,  i.  329;  ii.  58, 
100.  Letters  to:  Home 
Rule,  ii.  7;  importance  of 
character  in  politics,  ib. 
seq. 

EABTH,  the:  Spencer's  specula- 
tions concerning  atmos- 
phere and  form,  ii.  156; 
age,  ii.  174;  constitution 
of  interior,  ib.;  cooling,  ii. 
178 

Eclectic  Review,  i.  49  seq. 

"  Ecclesiastical  Institutions  " 
(Principles  of  Sociology, 
Part  VI.),  i.  326  seq.,  335 
seq.,  356 

Economist:  i.  62,  73,  74,  82, 
100;  ii.  369;  Spencer's  sub- 
editorship,  i.  73,  74,  81,  87, 
91  seq. 

Edinburgh  Review,  i.  91,  99, 
154,  257,  305;  ii.  370;  re- 
view of  evolution  philoso- 
phy, i.  318 

Edinburgh  University,  i.  245 
seq.;  ii.  107 

Education:   Spencer's  early  in- 


399 


INDEX 


terest  in  subject,  i.  37;  as 
a  franchise  qualification,  i. 
122;  State  agency,  i.  344; 
ii.  126,  196,  224;  Journal- 
istic plebiscite  concerning 
leading  educationists,  i. 
345;  London  Liberty  Club, 
i.  370;  outcry  against  in- 
sufficient, i.  375;  centrali- 
sation and  uniformity,  ii. 
127,  196;  Spencer's  views 
not  influenced  by  Rous- 
seau, ii.  212  seq.;  evolu- 
tionary conception,  ii.  320 

Education,  Intellectual,  Moral, 
and  Physical,  [collected 
essays  by  Spencer] :  i.  75, 
92,  96,  109,  113,  133  seq.; 
ii.  304,  320,  366;  sixpenny 
edition,  ii.  212;  transla- 
tions, i.  262;  ii.  194,  207 
note 

Edward  VII.,  King:  ii.  216; 
absurd  story  of,  when 
Prince  of  Wales,  ii.  141 

Egypt:  visit  and  impressions,  i. 
271  seq.;  crisis  in,  i.  297 
seq. 

Egyptians,  Ancient :  Descrip- 
tive Sociology,  ii.  196 

Elam,  Dr.,  i.  249 

Electric  current,  analogy  in 
nervous  action,  i.  237 

Elements,  chemical :  products 
of  evolution,  ii.  169  seq. 

Eliot,  George  (nee  Marian 
Evans)  :  i.  272;  ii.  141; 
first  meeting,  i.  83;  intro- 
duced by  Spencer  to  G.  H. 
Lewes,  i.  83;  on  Spencer's 
ethics,  i.  264;  last  meet- 
ing, i.  284;  death  and  fu- 
neral, ib.;  Spencer's  rela- 
tions with,  i.  286,  356  seq.; 
her  mental  powers,  i.  395; 
gives  Mill's  Logic  to  Spen- 


cer, ii.  147;  instigates 
Spencer  to  read  Comte,  ii. 
321.  Letter  from,  i.  285 

Ellicott,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter, i.  250 

Elliott,  Sir  Frederick,  commit- 
tee-man at  Athenaeum,  ii. 
255 

Ellis,  Mr.,  educationist,  i.  163 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo:  i.  310 
seq.;  opinion  of  Spencer,  i. 
198 

Engineer's  Journal,  i.  43 

English :  "  bovine  unintelli- 
gence,"  ii.  5;  too  stupid 
to  generalise,  ii.  6;  na- 
tional aggressiveness,  ii. 
16,  24,  121  (see  also  ii. 
105);  Spencer's  prestige 
in,  ii.  194;  freedom,  ii.  313 

Equilibration,  views  of  Tyn- 
dall  and  Spencer,  i.  135  (v. 
ii.  335) 

Escrick  Park,  i.  288 

Essays  (Spencer's  collected),  i. 
109,  110,  147,  169,  301;  ii. 
67,  172,  304,  367 

Ethical  Lectures'  Fund,  ii.  144 
seq.,  197  seq.,  381 

Ethical  Movement,  ii.  198 

Ethics:  absolute,  i.  77;  genesis 
of  moral  sentiments,  i.  195 
seq.;  and  religion,  i.  303; 
highest  aim  of  the  benefi- 
cent, ii.  19;  differentiation 
from  religion,  ii.  19;  ideal 
or  absolute,  in  political  af- 
fairs, ii.  27  seq.;  social  evo- 
lution, ii.  35  seq.,  quali- 
fications for  teaching,  ii. 
147 ;  Hector  Macpherson  on 
Spencer's  work  in,  ii.  287; 
conception  formerly  cur- 
rent, ii.  312;  evolutionary 
conception,  ii.  362  seq.; 
conclusions  concerning  pri- 


400 


INDEX 


vate  conduct  empirical,  ii. 
363 

Ethics   (periodical),  ii.  381 
Evans,  Sir  John,  ii.  100 
Evans,     Marian      (see     Eliot, 

George) 

Everett,  Edward,  i.  131 
Eversley,     Lord      (Mr.     Shaw 

Lefevre),  ii.  225 
Evolution:  man  the  highest  re- 
sult, i.  81 ;  Darwin's  viewa, 
i.  113,  327;  ii.  4;  incom- 
patible with  spontaneous 
generation,  i.  190  seq.; 
Gazelles'  outline,  i.  202; 
reply  to  criticisms  on  doc- 
trine, i.  219;  A.  R.  Wal- 
lace on  altruism,  i.  265; 
heredity,  i.  360  seq.;  W. 
H.  Hudson's  exposition,  ii. 
3  seq.;  social  state,  ii.  35 
seq.,  314  seq.,  352  seq.; 
religious  ideas,  i.  335  seq.; 
ii.  354  seq.;  application  to 
inorganic  nature,  ii.  156, 
184;  origin  of  elements,  ii. 
168  seq.,  184;  equality  of 
men  excluded,  ii.  213;  filia- 
tion of  ideas  in  relation  to, 
ii.  314  seq. 

Examiner,  i.  221;  ii.  373 
Exhibition,   the  Great    (1851), 

i.  81 
Exhibition,  International  ( 1862), 

i.  136 
Explanation,   relativity  of   the 

conception,  ii.  125 
Eyre,  Governor,  ii.  192 

"  FACTORS  of  Organic  Evolu- 
tion," i.  329,  359 

Facts  and  Comments  (Spen- 
cer's last  book)  :  ii.  56 
note,  186,  189  seq.;  197, 
200  seq.;  234;  opinion  of 
friends  and  critics,  ii.  205; 


translations,  ii.  206;  "ul- 
timate questions,"  ii.  234 

Fairbairn,  Dr.  A.  M.,  i.  289 

Faraday,  Michael:  attitude  to 
Comtism,  i.  149 

Fawcett,  Henry,  i.  397 

Fawcett,  Mrs.,  i.  369 

Felton,  C.  C.,  i.  131 

Ferri,  Prof.  Enrico:  evolution 
and  socialism,  ii.  79 

Ferry,  Jules,  French  statesman, 
i.  266;  ii.  374 

Fetichism   (see  Animism) 

Figaro,  Le,  ii.  70,  377 

"Filiation  of  Ideas,"  ix.,  ii. 
140  (Appendix  B),  304 
seq. 

First  Principles:  i.  131  seq., 
136  seq.,  141  seq.,  159,  194, 
202,  232,  268,  280,  318;  ii. 
366;  second  edition,  i.  194; 
ii.  341,  366;  J.  S.  Mill's 
appreciation,  i.  141  seq.; 
French  translation,  i.  202; 
Tyndall's  criticisms,  i. 
232;  ii.  161  (v.  ii.  335); 
position  in  scheme  of  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy,  ii.  90 
seq.;  final  revised  edition, 
ii.  156,  183  seq.;  ii.  366; 
scheme  for  omitted  divi- 
sions, ii.  158  seq.;  in  rela- 
tion to  recent  advances  in 
physical  science,  ii.  170; 
ghost  theory,  ii.  193;  inde- 
pendence of  its  two  parts, 
ii.  210  seq.  (v.  i.  268),  ii. 
334;  Hector  Maepherson's 
criticism,  ii.  286  seq.; 'filia- 
tion of  ideas  in,  ii.  334  seq. 

Fiske,  John:  i.  225;  defence  of 
Spencer  in  Nation,  i.  198; 
lectures  at  Harvard  on 
Spencer's  philosophy,  i. 
206;  proposes  title  "Cos- 
mic Philosophy,"  i.  207 


401 


INDEX 


seq.;  death,  ii.  195.  Let- 
ters to,  i.  207,  208;  ii.  64 

Fitch,  Sir  Joshua,  letter  to,  ii. 
196 

Flower,  Sir  William  H.,  i.  359, 
362.  Letter  to,  ii.  20 

Folkestone,  i.  365 

Forbes,  Prof.  Edward,  on  Spen- 
cer's theory  of  population, 
i.  84 

"  Form  of  the  Earth,  etc.,"  ii. 
156,  369 

Fortnightly  Review,  i.  156,  195, 
251,  257  seq.,  288;  ii.  18, 
72,  184,  246,  372  seq.,  376 
seq. 

Forum,  The,  American  maga- 
zine, ii.  246 

Foster,  Sir  Michael,  i.  359,  362; 
ii.  100 

Fowler,  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  ii. 
240 

Fox,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir) 
Charles,  i.  29,  56,  65 

France:  impressions  of,  i.  98; 
architecture  and  decora- 
tion, ib.;  bellicose  feeling 
in  '58,  i.  Ill;  events  of 
1870-71,  i.  203  seq.;  social 
characteristics,  i.  204  seq.; 
Spencer's  views  discussed 
in  Chamber,  i.  265  seq.; 
Lord  Salisbury's  B.A.  ad- 
dress and  Spencer's  article, 
ii.  74;  "political  burgla- 
ries," ii.  121;  Spencer's 
last  book,  ii.  206;  Loubet's 
visit  to  England,  ii.  216; 
Revolution,  ii.  354  (see 
also  Academie  des  Sci- 
ences, and  Paris) 

Franchise:  ii.  20  seq.;  educa- 
tional qualification,  i.  122 
seq.;  extension  to  women, 
i.  180  seq. 

Francis,  John  W.,  i.  131 


Frankfort,  Spencer's  impression 
of,  i.  94 

Frankland,  Prof.  ( afterwards 
Sir)  Edward,  i.  190,  257, 
286;  ii.  100,  173 

Fraser,  Prof.  A.  Campbell;  tes- 
timonial to  Spencer,  i.  117. 
Letters  to,  92  seq.,  96 

Fraser's  Magazine,  i.  109;  ii. 
371 

Free  libraries,  Spencer's  views 
concerning,  ii.  126 

Free  Life,  organ  of  individual- 
ism, i.  400  seq. 

Free-Trade,  i.  50 

Freedom,  law  of  equal,  ii.  313, 
364 

Fremantle,  W.  A.  H.  C.,  letter 
to,  i.  397 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  ii.  259 

"  From  Freedom  to  Bondage," 
i.  403;  ii.  377 

Froude,  J.  A.,  i.  257;  on  pro- 
gramme of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, i.  126 ;  "  science 
of  history  "  repudiated  by, 
ii.  352 

Froude  [William],  "skin  fric- 
tion," ii.  338 

Fry,  Sir  Edward,  ii.  100;  argu- 
ment against  Weismann, 
ii.  52.  Letters  to,  ii.  52, 
55 

Furness,  Dr.,  i.  131 

GALL,  DR.,  phrenologist,  ii.  310 
Galton,  Sir  Douglas,  ii.  100 
Galton,    Francis:    i.   297,   377; 
ii.  97,   100,  237;   on  Spen- 
cer's remarkable  feat  as  a 
boy,    i.    16;    reminiscences 
of  Spencer,  ii.  262  seq.,  272 
seq.     Letter  to,  ii.  117 
Gambling,  ii.  23 
Garnett,  Dr.  Richard,  ii.  100 
Garrett,  Mr.,  i.  307 


402 


INDEX 


Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  Junr., 
ii.  43 

"  Genesis  of  Science,"  ii.  90,  321 
seq.,  325,  340,  370 

Geology:  in  scheme  for  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy,  ii.  91, 
seq.;  age  of  solar  system, 
ii.  167;  writings  bearing 
on,  ii.  156  seq.;  age  of  the 
earth,  ii.  178;  volcanic 
eruptions,  ii.  176  seq.; 
cooling  of  the  earth,  ii. 
178  seq.;  a  priori  reason- 
ing, ii.  326 

"  Geometrical  Theorem,"  article 
by  Spencer  on,  i.  34;  ii. 
367 

George,  Henry:  Progress  and 
Poverty,  i.  290;  meeting 
with,  ib.;  repudiation  of 
views,  i.  305 ;  policy  of  tax- 
ing out  landlords,  i.  400; 
attack  on  Spencer  in  A 
Perplexed  Philosopher,  ii. 
3 

Germany:  Order  "Pour  le 
Merite,"  ii.  80;  Spencer's 
last  book,  ii.  206;  subordi- 
nation to  authority,  ii.  313 

"Germ-Plasm"   theory,  ii.   52 

Ghost-Theory,  ii.  62,  193,  353 
note,  360 

Gibbs,  Walcott,  i.  131 

Giddings,  Prof.  F.,  ii.  357  note 

Giffen,  Sir  Robert,  letters  to, 
ii.  195  seq. 

Gingell,  Miss  Julia  R.,  ii.  3,  75 

Giornale  d'  Italia,  ii.  209 

Gladstone,  W.  E.:  correspond- 
ence with,  arising  out  of 
Study  of  Sociology,  i.  215 
seq.,  ii.  40;  amicable  rela- 
tions with  Spencer,  i.  216, 
222,  256,  279,  286;  ii.  49 
seq.,  141;  Anti- Aggression 
League,  i.  297;  protest 


from  a  correspondent,  i. 
338 ;  opinion  of  "  From 
Freedom  to  Bondage,"  i. 
404;  on  testimonial  to 
Spencer,  ii.  102;  principle 
of  authority  universally 
operative,  ii.  247  seq. 

Glover,  Miss,  i.  341 

Goblet  d'  Alviella,  Count,  let- 
ters to,  ii.  3,  76 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von:  Wilhelm 
Meister,  i.  68;  Faust,  ii. 
136 

Golden  Penny,  i.  399 

Golder's  Green  Crematorium, 
ii.  228 

Goligher,  Prof.  W.  A.,  compiler 
of  Descriptive  Sociology, 
ii.  197  note 

Gomperz,  Prof.  Theodore  (Vi- 
enna) :  on  Plato's  intellect 
and  influence,  ii.  292.  Let- 
ter from,  on  Spencer's  elec- 
tion to  Imperial  Academy, 
ii.  80  seq. 

Goschen,  W.  E.,  ii.  208 

"Gospel  of  Relaxation,"  i.  307 

Gowers,  Sir  William,  on  spe- 
cialisation in  science,  ii. 
115 

Graham,  Prof.,  colloids  and 
crystalloids,  ii.  336 

Grant,  Sir  Alexander:  "Phi- 
losophy and  Mr.  Darwin," 
i.  197 

Grant,  Miss  Alice,  painter  of 
Spencer's  portrait,  ii.  114 
note 

Grant,  Dr.,  i.  273 

Grant-Duff,  Sir  M.  E.,  i.  257; 
ii.  100 

Gray,  Prof.  Asa,  i.  131,  223 

Great  Central  Railway,  opposi- 
tion to  London  extension, 
ii.  5 

Great-man    theory,    Mr.    Mal- 


403 


INDEX 


lock's  criticism  of  Spencer, 
ii.  132  seq. 
"Great  Political  Superstition," 

i.  324 

Greater  Britain,  ii.  24 
Greeks:    Descriptive  Sociology, 

ii.  196  note 

Greeley,  Horace,  i.  131 
Green,  Utilitarian  publisher,  i. 

69 

Green,  Mrs.  J.  R.,  ii.  129 
Green,  Prof.  T.  EL,  ii.  140 
Greenwich,  Spencer's  plan  for 

dam  at,  i.  82 

Greenwood,  Frederick,  ii.  29 
Greg,  W.  R.:  on  Spencer's  pop- 
ulation theory,  i.  84;  elec- 
tion to  Athenaeum  Club,  ii. 
253 

Grey,  Sir  George,  i.  316,  339 
Grimthorpe,  Lord  (Sir  Edward 

Beckett),  i.  318 
Grose,  Rev.  T.  H.,  ii.  240 
Grote,  George:    i.   88;   testimo- 
nial to  Spencer,  i.  117 
Ground,  Rev.  W.  D.,  critic,  i. 

336  seq. 

Grove,  Sir  George,  ii.  100 
Grove,    Sir    William    R.:    Cor- 
relation of  Physical  Forces, 
ii.  328 

Grundyometer,  ii.  2 
Gull,  Sir  William,  ii.  257 
Giinther,   Albert   C.   L.   G.,    ii. 

100 

Guthrie,   Rev.  Malcolm,   critic, 
i.  267,  280 

HALDANE,  RIGHT  HON.  R.  B.,  ii. 

240 

Hale,  E.  E.,  i.  131 
Halle,  Sir  Charles,  ii.  253 
Hamilton,  Rev.  Dr.  D.,  ii.  240 
Hamilton,  Lady  Claud,  i.  284 
Hamilton,    Gail:     The    Insup- 

pressible  Book,  i.  356 


Hamilton,  J.  McLure,  ii.  86 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  letter 
from,  "  The  Universal  Post- 
ulate," i.  95 

Hanotaux,  G.,  French  Minister, 
ii.  120 

Harper,  Mr.,  i.  278 

Harrison,  Frederic:  i.  257,  258, 
384;  ii.  100,  237;  contro- 
versies with  Spencer,  i. 
327,  339  seq.,  349  seq. 
Letters  to,  i.  351  seq.;  ii. 
18,  214 

Harting,  James  E.,  ii.  100 

Hartog,  Prof.  Marcus:  corre- 
spondence on  biological 
matters,  ii.  52  seq.,  56,  118 

Harvard  University :  John 
Fiske's  lectures,  i.  206 

Hawke,  John,  Anti-gambling 
League,  letter  to,  ii.  23 

"  Haythorne  Papers,"  series  of 
essays  by  Spencer,  i.  85, 
93,  96;  ii.  318 

Heberden,  C.  B.,  Principal  of 
Brasenose,  ii.  240 

Hegeler,  B.,  i.  290  seq. 

Hegelianism:  vogue  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  201  seq.,  245;  last 
refuge  of  the  orthodox,  ii. 
202 

Helmholtz,  H.  L.  F.  von:  on 
heat  evolved  in  solar  con- 
densation, ii.  167 

Hemming,  Mr.,  i.  256 

Hemus,  foreign  origin  of  fam- 
ily named,  i.  1 

Hemus,  Elizabeth,  Spencer's 
ancestor,  i.  2 

Hennel,  Miss  Sarah,  i.  69 

Hennezel,  or  Henzu,  Thomas 
and  Balthazar  de,  immi- 
grants named,  i.  1 

Henslow,  Rev.  Prof.  George: 
argument  against  Weis- 


mann,  ii.  51 


404 


INDEX 


Henzey,  foreign  origin  of  fam- 
ily so  named,  i.  1 

Herald,  New  York,  i.  300 

Herbert,  Hon.  Auberon:  i.  412; 
ii.  207;  urged  to  write  on 
social  questions,  ii.  60;  in- 
dividualistic propaganda, 
i.  401  seq.;  scheme  for  bet- 
ter ventilation  of  houses,  i. 
404;  Herbert  Spencer,  Lec- 
turer, ii.  237.  Letters  to, 
i.  300,  401  seq.,  405;  ii. 
60  seq. 

"  Herbert  Spencer  on  American 
Nervousness,"  i.  306 

Herbert  Spencer  on  the  Ameri- 
cans, etc.,  i.  300 

Heredity :  use-inheritance,  i. 
360;  ii.  45,  205;  inter- 
breeding of  unlike  races, 
ii.  16  seq.;  limitation  by 
sex,  ii.  116 

Herkomer,  Sir  Hubert  von,  R. 
A.,  painter  of  subscription 
portrait  of  Spencer,  ii. 
104,  108.  Letters  to,  ii. 
110  seq.,  112 

Herschel,  Sir  John:  on  pro- 
gramme of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, i.  126;  Comtism, 
i.  148;  aids  reorganisation 
of  Reader,  i.  153;  nebular 
hypothesis,  ii.  157,  386 
seq.;  theory  of  the  sun,  ii. 
331 

Hertwig,  Prof.,  ii.  54 

Heyworth,  Lawrence,  M.P.,  i. 
60,  70,  414 

Highgate  Cemetery :  George 
Eliot's  funeral,  i.  285  seq.; 
Spencer's  tomb,  ii.  234 

Hill,  Dr.  Alex.,  Master  of 
Downing,  Cambridge,  ii. 
240 

Hillard,  George  S.,  i.  131 

Hinton  Charterhouse,  Somerset- 


shire: Spencer's  life  at,  i. 
16  seq.,  45;  Library,  i. 
372 

Hirst,  Dr.  T.  Archer,  i.  219, 
408;  ii.  29 

History:  futility  of,  i.  80  (v. 
ii.  123)  ;  science  of,  repudi- 
ated by  leading  writers,  ii. 
352 

Hobbes,  Thomas :  Spencer's 
knowledge  of  his  writings, 
ii.  146;  saying  quoted,  ii. 
247 

Hobhouse,  Lord:  ii.  100,  239; 
a  greeting  from,  ii.  203 

Hodge,  F.  H.,  i.  131 

Hodgson,  Richard,  junr.:  i. 
282  seq.  Letter  to,  i. 
303 

Hodgson,  Shadworth,  ii.  100 

Hoffding,  Prof.  Harold:  Danish 
translator,  i.  389;  corre- 
spondence concerning  cor- 
relation of  mind  and  body, 
i.  235  seq. 

Hoguet,  M.,  ii.  226 

Holland,  Sir  Henry:  testimo- 
nial to  Spencer,  i.  117 

Holme,  Charles:  i.  272;  last 
visit  to  Spencer,  ii.  227; 
executorship,  ii.  228.  Let- 
ter to,  ii.  92 

Holme,  George,  of  Derby:  i. 
272;  saves  Spencer's  life 
when  a  boy,  i.  13,  234;  his 
gratitude,  i.  13;  portrait 
sketch,  i.  43;  death,  ii.  92; 
Spencer's  tribute,  ib.  Let- 
ter to,  i.  234 

Holmes,  Jane  (nee  Brettell), 
Spencer's  grandmother,  i.  3 

Holmes,  John,  Spencer's  grand- 
father, i.  3 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  i.  372 

Holt,  Henry,  American  pub- 
lisher, i.  198 


405 


INDEX 


Holt,  Richard,  of  Liverpool,  i. 
259,  300 

Holt,  Mrs.  Richard  (nee  Pot- 
ter), letters  to,  i.  227,  247 

Holyoake,  George  Jacob:  i. 
130;  Spencer's  apprecia- 
tion of,  ii.  216.  Letters  to, 
ii.  65,  211 

Home  Rule,  i.  329,  401;  ii.  7, 
20 

Homer,  real  creed  of  Christians, 
derived  from,  ii.  122 

Honorary  degrees  (see  Titles 
and  Appendix  D),  ii.  382 

Hooker,  Sir  Joseph  Dalton:  i. 
108,  258;  consulted  by 
Spencer,  i.  115,  132,  161, 
163;  testimonial  to  Spen- 
cer, i.  117;  opinion  of 
Spencer's  researches  in 
plant  circulation,  i.  200; 
use-inheritance,  i.  360 ; 
the  Huxley-Spencer  contro- 
versy, ii.  29  seq.;  trans- 
mits address  of  congratula- 
tion to  Spencer,  ii.  98, 
100;  bond  of  friendship,  ii. 
199,  219;  dissent  from 
Spencer's  view  of  South 
African  war,  ii.  205.  Let- 
ters to:  asking  testimonial, 
i.  115;  reason  for  seeking 
foreign  consulship,  i.  118 
seq.;  refusal  to  accept  sub- 
scription, i.  131  seq.;  rea- 
sons for  not  joining  Royal 
Society,  i.  222  seq.;  address 
of  congratulation,  ii.  102 
seq.;  subscription  portrait, 
ii.  104,  108  seq.,  169  seq.; 
personal,  ii.  199  seq.,  219. 
Letters  from:  on  draw- 
backs of  a  foreign  consul- 
ship, i.  116;  X  Club  rem- 
nant, ii.  219 

Hopkinson,  Dr.  A.,  Vice-Chan- 


cellor, Victoria  University, 
ii.  240 

Hopps,  Rev.  J.  Page,  letter 
to,  declining  invitation  to 
stand  for  Leicester,  i. 
320 

Houghton,  Lord  [Monckton- 
Milnes],  ii.  49 

House  of  Commons:  power  of, 
i.  320;  philosophers  a  fail- 
ure in,  i.  322 

Howard,  George,  M.P.,  i.  319 

Howells,  W.  D.,  Spencer's  opin- 
ion of,  ii.  266 

Howitt,  William  and  Mary,  i. 
69 

Hudson,  William  Henry,  Spen- 
cer's secretary,  i.  329 ;  book 
on  Rousseau,  ii.  213  seq.; 
"  Character  Study "  of 
Spencer,  ii.  213;  reminis- 
cences, ii.  266.  Letters  to, 
ii.  3,  213 

Huggins,  Sir  William,  ii.  100, 
173 

Hughes,  Miss  Edith,  ii.  75 

Hughes,  W.  R.,  i.  307 

Huguenots,  settlement  at  Stour- 
bridge,  i.  1  (v.  8) 

Humanity:  true  theory  how  de- 
rived, i.  80;  organic  bad- 
ness, i.  403;  irrationality, 
ii.  77,  191;  lack  of  critical 
faculty,  ii.  84 

Humanity,  Religion  of  (see 
Comte) 

Humboldt,  Kosmos,  i.  69 

Hume,  David,  ii.  283,  284,  368 

Humphrey  Clinker,  ii.  266 

Hunt,  W.  Holman,  election  to 
Athenaeum,  ii.  253  seq. 

Huth,   i.   256 

Hutton,  Richard:  attack  on  So- 
cial Statics,  i.  77;  Spen- 
cer's ethical  views,  i. 
195 


406 


INDEX 


Huxley,  Leonard,  Life  and  Let- 
ters of  T.  H.  Huxley,  i.  132 

Huxley,  Prof.  T.  H.:  on  Spen- 
cer's boyhood,  i.  15;  friend- 
ship initiated,  i.  83;  ii.  318; 
introduces  Spencer  to  Tyn- 
dall,  i.  85;  friendly  rela- 
tions and  intercourse,  i. 
101,  108,  110,  219  seq.,  255 
seq.,  316,  318;  ii.  18;  gives 
Spencer  advice  and  criti- 
cism, i.  106,  108,  131  seq., 
161  seq.,  172,  190,  237, 
356  seq.,  359,  367;  New 
Year's  dinners,  i.  108,  318; 
controversy  with  Owen,  i. 
112;  testimonial  to  Spen- 
cer, i.  118;  ii.  279;  atti- 
tude to  Comtism,  i.  148; 
reorganisation  of  Reader, 
i.  153;  spontaneous  gen- 
eration, i.  191;  "Adminis- 
trative Nihilism,"  i.  197 
seq. ;  International  Scien- 
tific Series,  i.  210,  248; 
Belfast  lecture,  i.  228; 
George  Eliot's  funeral,  i. 
284;  jocose  reference  to 
photograph  of  Spencer,  i. 
284;  Darwin's  funeral,  i. 
296;  President  Royal  So- 
ciety, i.  315;  views  on  he- 
redity, i.  359  seq.;  reads 
proofs  of  Spencer's  Auto- 
biography, i.  367;  reply  to 
W.  S.  Lilly,  i.  369;  State- 
education,  i.  370;  "The 
Struggle  for  Existence  in 
Human  Society,"  i.  374; 
combativeness,  i.  376;  ban- 
ter, i.  377;  ii.  263; 
house  -  building  at  East- 
bourne, i.  388;  land- 
question,  ii.  27  seq.;  ii. 
213;  Romanes  lecture. 
"  Evolution  and  Ethics," 


ii.  35;  death,  ii.  82;  age  of 
the  Earth,  ii.  166,  179;  al- 
leged influence  of  Rous- 
seau on  Spencer,  ii.  213; 
saying  about  Spencer's  de- 
ductive bent,  ii.  264;  liter- 
ary composition,  ii.  265; 
on  the  value  of  theory  in 
scientific  research,  ii.  279; 
early  discussion  on  devel- 
opment question  recalled, 
ii.  318;  hatred  of  deductive 
reasoning,  ii.  326.  Let- 
ters to:  introductory,  i. 
85;  Psychology,  and  con- 
gratulations on  marriage, 
i.  101;  foreign  consulship, 
i.  119;  First  Principles,  i. 
131  seq.;  loss  of  his  son, 
ib.;  plans  for  keeping  the 
philosophy  going,  i.  166 
seq.;  a  publisher's  indis- 
cretion, i.  303;  X  Club  fri- 
volity, etc.,  i.  333;  criti- 
cism on  "  Factors  of  Or- 
ganic Evolution,"  i.  360; 
suggested  yachting  cruise, 
i.  364;  reply  to  Lilly,  i. 
369;  death  of  his  daugh- 
ter, i.  373;  London  dissi- 
pations, i.  377;  house- 
building, i.  288;  reconcilia- 
tion after  estrangement,  ii. 
37;  Lord  Salisbury's  Ad- 
dress, ii.  73  seq.;  age  of 
the  Earth,  ii.  178.  Let- 
ters from:  X  Club  frivol- 
ity, i.  333;  use-inheritance, 
i.  360;  Spencer's  Autobi- 
ography, i.  367;  reconcilia- 
tion, ii.  37;  Lord  Salis- 
bury's Address,  ii.  74; 
Lord  Kelvin  and  the  age 
of  the  Earth,  ii.  178 
Huxley,  Mrs.  T.  H.:  i.  130, 
279;  on  Boehm's  bust  of 


407 


INDEX 


Spencer,  i.  326.    Letter  to, 
ii.  82 

Hymns  for  Infant  Minds :  Spen- 
cer's textbook  as  a  child,  i. 
12 

IDEALISM,  German,  in  England, 
ii.  201  seq. 

Ilbert,  Sir  Courtney,  compara- 
tive legislation,  ii.  67 

"Illogical  Geology,"  i.  123;  ii. 
157,  332,  371 

Imperialism,  ii.  24 

India:  early  marriages,  i.  396; 
its  conquest,  an  example  to 
Japan,  ii.  15;  Eurasians, 
ii.  17;  requests  received  by 
Spencer  from,  ii.  188; 
Spencer's  Education  trans- 
lated, ii.  207  note 

Individualism,  does  not  mean 
individual  isolation,  ii.  59 
(see  Social  State) 

Industrial  Freedom  League,  ii. 
216 

"Industrial  Institutions"  (di- 
vision of  Principles  of  So- 
ciology), ii.  95,  361  seq. 

Inorganic  evolution :  omitted 
division  of  Spencer's  phi- 
losophy, ii.  91,  155  seq.; 
writings  bearing  thereon, 
ii.  156  seq. 

Insuppressible  Book,  The,  i.  356 

Interbreeding  between  diver- 
gent species,  ii.  16  seq. 

International  Arbitration  Co- 
operative Society,  i.  297 

International  Scientific  Series, 
i.  209  seq.,  248 

Inventiveness:  implies  self-con- 
fidence, ii.  249 

Ireland:  ii.  79;  obstructive  tac- 
tics of  Irish  Party,  ii.  7 
(see  the  Home  Rule) 

Italy:  Spencer's  visit  to,  i.  188; 


honorary  degrees  conferred 
on  him,  i.  258,  389;  ii.  81 
(v.  ii.  382);  translations, 
ii.  206;  official  condolences 
on  his  death,  ii.  237 
Ito,  Count  (now  Marquis), 
Japanese  statesman,  i. 
391;  ii.  14,  18 

JACKSON,  REV.  B.  W.,  Oxford, 

ii.  240 
Jackson,  G.   B.  W.    (Spencer's 

engineering    colleague ) ,    i. 

68,    81.      Letters    from,    i. 

44 
Jackson,  Dr.  H.,  Cambridge,  ii. 

240 
Jackson,  Dr.  Hughlings,  i.  302; 

ii.  100 

Jacob,  Colonel,  Chief  Commis- 
sioner in  Scinde  and  Social 

Statics,  i.  Ill 

Janes,  Dr.  L.  G.,  ii.  44,  195 
Janet,   of   French   Institute,    i. 

229 
Japan :  Spencer  consulted  about 

political     affairs,     i.     213, 

391;     ii.     11    seq.;    works 

translated,   i.   308;   ii.  207 

note 

Japp,  Prof.:  address  to  Chemi- 
cal  Section  of  B.   As.,   ii. 

119 
Jaws:   disuse  and  heredity,  ii. 

46 

Jersey,  i.  98 
Jesuits:      circulate     story     of 

Spencer's  conversion,  i.  398 

note 
Jeune,  Mrs.  (Lady  St.  Helier), 

i.  290 

Jevons,  S.,  i.  301 
Johnson,    Rev.     (Brooklyn,    N. 

Y.),  i.  371 

Jones,  Prof.  T.  Rymer,  ii.  315 
Jones,    Sir    William:    writings 


408 


INDEX 


unknown    to    Spencer,    ii. 
120 

Jose,  Mrs.,  i.  372,  414 
Journal  of  Education,  i.  345 
Jowett,  Benjamin,  i.  132 
Judd,  Prof.  J.  W.:  correspond- 
ence  on   volcanic   phenom- 
ena, ii.  175  seq. 
Judge,  Mark,  letter  to,  ii.  152 
Justice,  gratuitous  administra- 
tion, i.  322;   ii.  68 
"Justice"    (Part  IV.  of  Spen- 
cer's Principles  of  Ethics), 
i.  407,  412;  ii.  43 

KANAKAS,  in  Queensland,  ii.  21 

Kaneko,  Baron  Kentaro,  Jap- 
anese statesman:  i.  390; 
ii.  11  seq.  Letters  to:  con- 
servative policy  for  Japan, 
ii.  11;  on  Japanese  policy 
with  regard  to  foreigners, 
ii.  14  seq. 

Kant,  Immanuel:  philosophy,  i. 
303  seq.;  ii.  198;  Spen- 
cer's knowledge  of  his  writ- 
ings, ii.  146;  principle  of 
individual  action,  ii.  313 

Karnak,  i.  274 

Keatinge,  M.  W.,  letter  to,  ii. 
127 

Kelvin,  Lord  (Sir  Wm.  Thom- 
son) :  metric  system,  ii. 
94;  method  of  reasoning, 
ii.  116;  age  of  the  earth 
and  solar  system,  ii.  166 
seq.,  178,  179;  cosmic  evo- 
lution, ii.  173;  rigidity  of 
earth's  interior,  ii.  174. 
Letter  to,  ii.  173 

Kershaw,  John  Derby,   i.   9 

Key,  Miss  Lilian,  ii.  131 

Killick,  Miss  Edith:  ii.  131; 
reminiscences  of  Spencer, 
ii.  227,  256,  260,  267  seq. 

Kimberley,  Earl  of,  i.  292 


Kingsley,  Rev.  Charles:  on 
programme  of  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  i.  127;  repu- 
diation of  "  science  of  his- 
tory," ii.  352 

Kirchhoff,  G.  R.,  ii.  184,  331 

Kirk  Ireton,  Derbyshire,  rec- 
ords of  Spencer  family  in 
parish  register,  i.  3 

Kirkman,  Rev.  T.,  i.  249,  28&' 

Knight,  Charles,  publisher,  i. 
79 

Knight,  Prof.  William,  ii.  100; 
article  in  Bookman,  ii. 
194 

Knowledge,  society  for  the  re- 
peal of  taxes  on,  i.  88 

Knowles,  Herbert,  poet,  Spen- 
cer named  after,  i.  9 

Knowles  [Sir]  James,  Editor 
of  Nineteenth  Century,  i. 
278,  338;  ii.  123 

Krakatau,  volcanic  eruption,  ii. 
175  seq. 

Krishnavarma,  Shyamaj ^found- 
er of  Herbert  Spencer  Lec- 
tureship, Oxford,  ii.  237 

LACAZE-DUTHIEB,  origin  of  an- 
nulose  type,  ii.  343 

Lace  Manufacture,  Spencer's 
father's  connection  with, 
i.  5,  10 

Laidlawstiel,  i.  226 

Laissez-faire,  current  concep- 
tion, i.  212 

Lamarck,  heredity,  i.  360 

Land  Nationalisation  Society, 
i.  290 

Land  question:  i.  76,  330; 
Spencer's  change  of  views, 
ii.  22,  26  seq.,  120;  dis- 
cussion in  Daily  Chronicle, 


Land    Restoration    League,    ii. 
43 


409 


INDEX 


Landlords:  interests  of,  unduly 
considered  in  leases,  i. 
390;  H.  George's  policy  of 
taxing,  i.  400;  operation 
of  short-lease  system,  i. 
406;  rating  of  small  tene- 
ments, i.  407 

Lang,  Andrew:  ii.  100;  The 
Making  of  Religion,  ii. 
134;  on  bores,  ii.  187.  Let- 
ters to,  Ghost  Theory,  ii. 
63 

Lang,  Very  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H., 
Aberdeen,  ii.  240 

Lankester,  Prof.  [Sir]  E.  Ray, 
i.  260;  ii.  45,  97,  101 

Lansdowne,  Marquess  of,  ii.  237 

Lardner,  Dr.  S.,  i.  34 

Latham,  Dr.  R.  G. :  testimonial 
to  Spencer,  i.  116 

Laugel  [Auguste],  writer  in 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  i. 
148 

Lavallie,  M.,  i.  262 

Laveleye,  Emile  de,  i.  327;  ii. 
76.  Letter  from,  i.  328 

Law,  gratuitous  interpretation 
of,  ii.  67  seq. 

Law  of  Equal  Freedom  (see 
Social  State) 

Law  of  Organic  Symmetry,  ii. 
316,  332,  343 

Lawley,  Mr.  and  Lady  Con- 
stance, i.  263 

Lawrence,  Sir  Trevor,  ii.  101 

"  Laws  of  Organic  Form,"  es- 
say by  Spencer,  i.  113;  ii. 
371 

Leader  [extinct  periodical],  i. 
76,  84,  85,  93,  96;  ii.  320, 
369  seq. 

League  of  Liberals  against  Ag- 
gression, ii.  190 

Lear,  Edward,  composer  of 
music  to  Tennyson's  "  Fare- 
well," i.  413  note 


Lecky,  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  H.:  i. 
286;  ii.  101,  130;  on  Spen- 
cer's ethical  writings,  i. 
263;  death,  ii.  225;  high 
character,  ii.  225 

Lecky,  Mrs.  W.  E.  H.:  i.  279, 
286;  "  Grundyometer "  to 
Spencer,  ii.  2  seq.  Letters 
to,  ii.  2,  225 

Lefevre,  G.  Shaw  (Lord  Evers- 
ley),  ii.  225 

Leicester:  Spencer  asked  to  be- 
come Parliamentary  candi- 
date, i.  319  seq. 

Leith  Vale,  Ockley,  Surrey,  ii. 
207,  212 

Lewes,  George  Henry:  i.  86,  92, 
166,  180,  256  seq.;  ii.  315, 
332  seq.;  first  meeting,  i. 
83;  ii.  315;  his  versatility 
and  appearance,  ii.  316; 
Spencer  introduces  Miss 
Evans  to,  i.  83;  misun- 
derstanding with,  i.  84 
seq.;  chaffs  Spencer  about 
wood-chopping,  i.  104;  Bi- 
ographical History  of  Phi- 
losophy, i.  172;  ii.  146, 
317;  death,  ii.  260;  literary 
composition,  ii.  265;  scien- 
tific interest  awakened  by 
Spencer,  ii.  317;  introduc- 
tion to  Huxley,  ii.  318; 
literary  editor  of  Leader, 
ib.;  explains  Comte's  ideas 
to  Spencer,  ii.  320 

Lewes,  Mrs.  ("George  Eliot,'' 
q.v.) 

Lewis,  Sir  G.  Cornewall,  edi- 
tor of  Edinburgh  Review, 
i.  91 

Liberal  Unionism:  merged  in 
Toryism,  ii.  191 

Liberalism:  i.  298,  324,  404; 
ii.  3,  217;  socialistic  tend- 
encies, ii.  190 


410 


INDEX 


Liberty:  the  idea  and  senti- 
ment, ii.  61;  result  of  re- 
moval of  restraints,  ii. 
79 

Liberty  and  Property  Defence 
League,  i.  323,  400  seq.; 
ii.  39 

Libraries  (see  Free  Libraries) 

Lieber,  Francis,  i.  131 

Life:  gospel  of  relaxation,  i. 
306  seq.;  aesthetic  element 
in,  ib.;  a  thing  or  a  proc- 
ess, ii.  83;  ultimate  mys- 
tery, ii.  119;  commencement 
of,  on  the  Earth,  ii.  182 
seq.;  conception  of,  as  in- 
dividuation,  ii.  315;  co- 
ordination of  actions,  ii. 
318,  322 

Life,  the  Science  of  (see  Biol- 
ogy) 

Lilly,  W.  S.,  i.  369;  ii.  47 

Limburg  Stirum,  Count  (ex- 
ecutor of  Auguste  Comte)  : 
pecuniary  help  declined  by 
Spencer,  i.  166 

Linguistic  culture,  based  on 
authority,  ii.  306 

Linnsean  Society:  Spencer's 
paper  on  plant  circula- 
tion, i.  163;  ii.  373 

Linton,  Lynn,  Mrs.:  i.  69; 
"  Grundyometer  "  to  Spen- 
cer, ii.  2;  article  on  Prof. 
H.  Drummond,  ii.  72.  Let- 
ters to,  ii.  72,  129 

Literature:  patronage  and  tal- 
ent, i.  51;  concentration  of 
feeling  and  idea,  ii.  137 

Literature  (weekly  review),  ii. 
132  seq.,  380 

Littleton,  Hon.  S.,  i.  262 

Littre",  E.  (editor  of  La  Philo- 
sophic Positive),  i.  205 

Liveing,  Prof.  G.  D.,  ii.  240 

Liverpool   University,   proposal 


for  chair  of  sociology,  i. 
280 

Loch,  Lord,  ii.  151 

Locke,  John:  Spencer's  knowl- 
edge of  his  writings,  ii. 
146 

Lockyer,  Sir  J.  Norman:  i. 
296;  ii.  101;  conversation 
with,  on  spectrum,  ii.  168. 
Letter  to,  ii.  48 

Lo-Feng-Luh,  Sir  Chih  Chen, 
Chinese  Minister:  opinion 
of  Spencer,  ii.  148 

Logic:  uselessness  of  formal,  ii. 
149;  an  objective  science, 
ii.  325 

London:  Spencer's  plans  for 
pure  water  supply,  i.  82; 
dryness  of  air,  i.  124; 
movement  for  resisting 
municipal  encroachments, 
i.  400,  404;  ii.  4,  39 

London  and  Birmingham  Rail- 
way ( afterwards  London 
and  North  Western  Rail- 
way), Spencer's  engineer- 
ing work  on,  i.  29 

London  County  Council:  Spen- 
cer proposed  as  Alderman, 
ii.  4 

London  Liberty  Club,  i.  370 

London  Library,  Spencer's  con- 
nection with,  ii.  255 

London  Ratepayers'  Defence 
League,  i.  404;  ii.  4  seq., 
40 

London  Review,   i.   152 

London  School  of  Economics,  ii. 
125 

London  University :  honorary 
degree  offered  to  Spencer, 
ii.  214 

Longevity :  proposed  enquiry, 
ii.  116 

"  Lord  Salisbury  on  Evolution," 
ii.  74,  380 


411 


INDEX 


Lothian,  Lady,  i.  263 

Lott,  Edward:  Spencer's  por- 
trait sketch  of,  i.  43;  re- 
monstrates with  Spencer 
on  excessive  language,  i. 
63;  on  Spencer's  favour 
with  women,  i.  71;  objec- 
tions to  Social  Statics,  i. 
77;  Spencer's  companion 
on  excursions  and  travels, 
i.  92,  102,  143,  152,  192, 
257,  291,  300;  illness  and 
death,  i.  365  seq.;  Spen- 
cer's appreciation  of ,  i.  367. 
Letters  to :  "  Proper  Sphere 
of  Government,"  i.  42; 
Wilson,  editor  of  Pilot,  i. 
62;  Shelley,  i.  68;  Goethe, 
Wilhelm  Meister,  ib.;  Car- 
lyle's  Cromwell,  ib.;  Dick- 
ens' Christmas  Tale,  ib.; 
history  and  evolution,  i. 
80;  Alex.  Smith,  Scotch 
poet,  i.  87;  impressions  of 
France,  i.  98;  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species,  i.  127; 
political  events  (general 
election),  i.  275;  holiday 
movements,  i.  288;  a  plan 
frustrated,  i.  332;  last 
good-bye,  i.  365 

Lott,  Francis  Edward:  Spen- 
cer's executor,  ii.  288;  rem- 
iniscences, ii.  257,  267. 
Letter  from,  i.  95 

Lott,  Miss  ("Phy"),  i.  332, 
341,  365 

Loubet,  M.,  French  President: 
visit  to  England,  ii.  216 

Lowell,  J.  Russell,  i.  131,  278 

Lubbock,  Sir  John  (now  Lord 
Avebury):  i.  142;  ii.  228, 
239.  Letter  from,  ii.  200 

Lushington,  Vernon,  Q.C.,  ii. 
101 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles:   i.  86,  133, 


153;  ii.  309,  322;  on  pro- 
gramme of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, i.  127;  on  Criti- 
cism, i.  148 

Lynn,  W.  T.,  assists  Spencer  in 
revising  essay  on  "  Nebular 
Hypothesis,"  ii.  173 

Lytton,  Sir  E.  Bulwer  (Lord)  : 
on  Spencer's  views  on  edu- 
cation, i.  78;  offended  by 
Spencer's  condemnation  of 
Afghan  war,  ii.  121 

MACAUIAY,  LOBD,  Spencer  on 
style  of,  i.  79 

McClure's  Magazine,  ii.  88 

McCosh,  Dr.,  i.  328 

Machinery,  outcry  against,  i. 
48,  122 

M'Lennan,  J.  F.,  i.  252 

MacMahon,  P.  A.,  F.R.S.,  ii. 
101 

Macmillan's  Magazine,  i.  238; 
ii.  166,  372 

Macpherson,  Hector:  ii.  148; 
book  on  Spencer,  ii.  141; 
offered  "  Reminiscences  of 
Herbert  Spencer "  by  a 
lady,  ib.;  review  of  Spen- 
cer's position  as  a  thinker, 
ii.  281  seq.  Letter  to: 
Carlyle,  ii.  93;  proposed 
book  on  Spencer,  ii.  93; 
"  Reminiscences  of  Her- 
bert Spencer,"  ii.  141 

Magnus,  Laurie,  letter  to,  ii. 
224 

Magrath,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  R.,  ii. 
241 

Mahaffy,  Dr.  J.  P.:  compila- 
tion of  Descriptive  Sociol- 
ogy, Greeks,  ii.  196 
note 

Mail  and  Express,  New  York 
newspaper,  i.  409 

Maine,  Sir  Henry  S.:   election 


412 


INDEX 


to  French  Academy,  i.  310 

seq. 
Malabari,   Behramji  M.,  letter 

to,    on   early    marriage    in 

India,  i.  395 
Mallock,   W.   H.:    criticism   on 

Spencer's  sociological  ideas, 

11.  132  seq.     Letter  to,  ii. 
132 

Man  versus  The  State,  i.  326, 
327,  412;  ii.  33 

Manchester,  Sheffield  and  Lin- 
colnshire Railway,  London 
extension,  ii.  5 

"Manners  and  Fashion,"  i.  93, 
96,  169;  ii.  320,  370 

Marble,  Manton,  i.  206,  385 

Mariette  Bey,  i.  273 

Marion,  H.,  i.  274 

Markham,  Sir  C.  R.:  election 
to  Athenaeum,  ii.  254  seq. 

Marriage:  suggested  to  Spen- 
cer as  a  cure  for  his  ail- 
ments, i.  104;  reasons  for 
opposing  native  usages  in 
India,  i.  396;  between  Eu- 
ropeans and  Orientals,  ii. 

12,  14  seq. 

Marsh,  Prof.  O.  C.,  i.  258 

Marshall,  Prof.  A.,  ii.  241 

Martello,  Tullio  (Bologna  Uni- 
versity), ii.  193 

Martial  Law,  ii.   193 

Martineau,  Harriet :  translation 
of  Comte,  i.  93;  ii.  320; 
refusal  of  pension,  ii.  387 

Martineau,  Rev.  Dr.  James:  ii. 
101;  criticism  of  Spen- 
cer's First  Principles,  i. 
137,  211,  374;  Types  of 
Ethical  Theory,  i.  327 

Masson,  Dr.  David:  i.  83,  91, 
93,  124,  125,  181,  286,  375; 
ii.  101;  introduces  writer 
to  Spencer,  i.  185;  sug- 
gestion for  critique  of  Syn- 


thetic Philosophy  by,  ii. 
123  seq.;  election  to  Athe- 
nseum,  ii.  253;  opinion  of 
Spencer's  last  book,  ii. 
205.  Letters  to,  ii.  123, 
202 

Mastication:  Spencer's  admoni- 
tion to  a  friend,  ii.  142 

Materialism :  repudiated  by 
Spencer,  i.  105 

Mathematicians:  lack  of  judg- 
ment, ii.  116;  defects  in 
reasoning,  ii.  116,  178; 
weight  attached  to  conclu- 
sions of,  ii.  178 

Mathematics,  appeal  to  private 
judgment,  ii.  306 

Mather,  Mr.,  schoolmaster,  of 
Derby,  i.  12,  27 

Matheson,  Rev.  George,  D.D.: 
Can  the  Old  Faith  Live 
with  the  New,  i.  336 

Matin,  Le,  ii.  216 

Maudsley,  Dr.  H.:  derivation 
of  doctrines  in  Physiology 
and  Pathology  of  the  Mind, 
i.  185,  189 

Maxwell,  Prof.  J.  Clerk:  corre- 
spondence concerning  Spen- 
cer's physical  speculations, 
ii.  161  seq. 

Mechanics'  Magazine,  i.  33 

Medical  men:  neglect  of  phys- 
ics, i.  125;  legislative  pol- 
icy, i.  202;  Spencer's  scep- 
tical attitude  to,  ii.  217 

Medical  Times  and  Gazette,  i. 
302 

Meinertzhagen,  Mrs.  (nee  Pot- 
ter) :  i.  272,  410;  ii.  2,  9, 
114.  Letter  to,  ii.  9 

Melbourne,  Victoria,  Spencerian 
Society,  ii.  209 

Meldola,  Prof.  Raphael,  F.R.S. : 
ii.  101 ;  proposed  memorial 
to  Spencer  in  Westminster 


413 


INDEX 


Abbey,  ii.  238;  the  Dean's 
reply,  ii.  242 ;  on  the  philo- 
sophic faculty  in  scientific 
research,  ii.  280 

Menabrea,  Marquis,  i.  244 

"Mental  Evolution,"  i.  197;  ii. 
373 

Mentone,  i.  261 

Merry,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  W.,  ii.  241 

Mesnil,  M.  du,  ii.  75 

Metaphysical   Society,  i.   191 

Methodist  Register  Office,  Spen- 
cer's birth  and  baptism 
entered  at,  i.  9 

Metric  System,  Spencer's  oppo- 
sition to,  ii.  94,  140 

Miall,  C.  S.,  i.  49,  54,  58,  76 

Midland  Naturalist,  i.  307 

Miers,  Prof.  Henry  A.,  ii.  241 

Milan,  i.  274 

Miles,  Mr.,  i.  273 

Militancy:  growth  in  teaching 
institutions,  ii.  196;  fac- 
tor in  social  evolution,  ii. 
355  seq. 

Militia,  i.  70 

Mill,  John  Stuart:  i.  79;  ii. 
320;  opinion  of  Spencer's 
Psychology,  i.  106 ;  "  Uni- 
versal Postulate,"  i.  106; 
ii.  146;  consulted  by  Spen- 
cer about  official  appoint- 
ment, i.  114;  his  testimo- 
nial, i.  116;  ultimate  test 
of  truth,  i.  156;  ii.  319; 
interest  in  Spencer's  suc- 
cess, i.  165;  recommends 
French  translator  to  Spen- 
cer, i.  169;  death,  and 
Spencer's  obituary  notice, 
i.  221;  ii.  373;  his  educa- 
tional standard,  ii.  144; 
Logic,  ii.  146,  320;  omit- 
ted divisions  of  Spencer's 
programme,  ii.  153 ;  on  phi- 
losophy in  England,  ii. 


281 ;  Hector  Macpherson 
on  his  philosophic  system, 
ii.  283  seq.;  utilitarianism, 
ii.  287.  Letters  to,  i.  140, 
142 ;  acknowledgment  of 
sympathy,  i.  114  seq.;  lib- 
erty, i.  121 ;  parliamentary 
reform,  the  franchise,  etc., 
i.  122;  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, i.  150;  the  con- 
duct of  The  Reader,  i.  154, 
156;  political  rights  of 
women,  i.  180  seq.  Letters 
from :  utilitarianism,  i. 
141;  Comte,  i.  149  seq.; 
aggressiveness  of  The 
Reader,  i.  154  seq.;  ulti- 
mate test  of  truth,  i.  156 
seq.,  160  seq.;  Spencer's 
Biology,  i.  200  seq.  (v.  i. 
342;  ii.  279) 

Millais,  Sir  J.  E.,  ii.  86,  102 

Miller,  Hugh,  ii.  332 

Milman,  Dean,  i.  88 

Milne-Edwards  [Henri],  ii.  75, 
317,  322,  356  note 

Milnes,  Monckton,  [Lord 
Hough  ton,  q.v.] 

Mind:  i.  229,  252,  260,  267, 
282,  394;  ii.  313,  374  seq.; 
change  of  control  and  pol- 
icy, ii.  201  seq. 

Minghetti,  Sgr.,  i.  262 

Minturn,  R.  B.  (New  York), 
i.  168 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Chalmers,  ii.  51 

Mitchell,  Mrs.,  of  Laidlawstiel, 
i.  247 

Mitchinson,  Canon  J.,  ii.  241 

Mivart,  Prof.  St.  George,  i. 
219,  228,  249 

Monro,  Dr.  D.  B.,  Oxford,  ii. 
241 

Moorsom,  Captain  C.  E.:  Spen- 
cer's engineering  chief,  i. 
29,  31;  his  opinion  of 


414 


INDEX 


Spencer  quoted,  i.  36;  do- 
mestic life  with,  i.  39  seq.; 
endeavours  to  check  Spen- 
cer's philosophic  propen- 
sity, ib.  Letter  to,  i.  39; 
letters  to  his  niece,  i.  45, 
48 

"  Morals  of  Trade,"  essay  on, 
i.  120  (17.  113);  ii.  371 

Mordan,  A.,  Reigate,  ii.  87 

Morell   [Dr.  J.  D.],  i.  106 

Morgan,  Dr.  C.  Lloyd:  ii.  101, 
241 ;  on  Spencer's  influ- 
ence, ii.  279 

Mori,  Viscount  Arinori,  Jap- 
anese diplomat,  i.  213;  ii. 
12 

Morley,  Rt.  Hon.  John:  Life  of 
Cobden  quoted,  i.  41 ;  meet- 
ings with,  i.  255  seq.,  286; 
ii.  97;  Newcastle  election, 
ii.  26;  address  of  congratu- 
lation to  Spencer,  ii.  97, 
101 ;  correspondence  with 
Spencer  relating  to  obse- 
quies, ii.  222  seq.,  228  seq.; 
Life  of  Gladstone  quoted, 
ii.  247  seq.  Letter  to, 
martial  law  in  South 
Africa,  ii.  193 

Morley,  Samuel,  M.P.,  i.  78, 
298 

Morning  Leader,  ii.  152  seq., 
381 

Mosse,  James,  C.E.,  opinion  of 
Spencer  as  engineering  col- 
league, i.  29 

Mottisfont,  i.  410 

Moulton  (Sir  J.  Fletcher),  i. 
219,  281;  ii.  171 

Mozley,  Mrs.,  advice  to  Spen- 
cer's father  to  join  the 
Church,  i.  11 

Mozley,  Rev.  T.:  Reminis- 
cences, i.  327;  ii.  375 

Muirhead,  Dr.  John  H.,  ii.  241 


Municipalities,  business  enter- 
prises, ii.  216 

Murchison,  Sir  R.,  ii.  332 

Murray,  John,  i.  404 

Music :  theory  of  origin,  i.  109 ; 
needless  expansion,  ii.  138 

Mysteries,  mediaeval,  ii.  139, 
249 

Mystery,  the  ultimate,  ii.  83, 
92,  249 

NADEN,  CONSTANCE:  Spencer's 
characterisation,  i.  394 

Napoleon,  Louis:  attitude  to 
England,  i.  112 

Nation,  The  (American  jour- 
nal), i.  198,  393 

National  Portrait  Gallery,  ii. 
86,  97 

National  Public  School  Asso- 
ciation, i.  78 

National  Review,  i.  105,  108, 
136,  340;  ii.  371 

National  Temperance  Chronicle, 
i.  89,  370 

Native  Races:  aggressions  by 
civilised  nations,  ii.  121, 
135 

Natural  Science,  ii.  118,  380 

Natural  Selection:  i.  360;  the 
question  of  acquired  char- 
acters, ii.  45  seq.;  Lord 
Salisbury's  view,  ii.  73; 
partially  recognised  in  So- 
cial Statics,  ii.  314;  fac- 
tor in  mental  evolution,  ii. 
324;  general  doctrine  of 
evolution,  ii.  334;  inter- 
pretation in  general  terms, 
ii.  339 

Nature :  non-moral  character 
of,  i.  374;  merciless  disci- 
pline, ii.  355 

Nature:  i.  219,  234,  283,  307; 
ii.  119,  175,  373  seq.;  ac- 
quired characters  contro- 


415 


INDEX 


versy,  ii.  45  seq.,  377;  al- 
leged bias,  ii.  48 

Nature  and  Reality  of  Reli- 
gion, ii.  377  seq. 

Nebular  Hypothesis:  ii.  156 
seq.,  329;  cooling  of  the 
earth,  ii.  180;  "The  Gene- 
sis of  Gaseous  Nebulae,"  ii. 
183;  unpublished  letter  to 
Fortnightly  Review,  ii.  385 
seq.  (For  Spencer's  arti- 
cle on,  see  "  Recent  As- 
tronomy " ) 

Neue  Freie  Presse,  ii.  209 

New  Englander,  i.  147  seq. 

"New  Form  of  Viaduct,"  i.  43; 
ii.  368 

"New  Toryism,"  i.  319 

"  New  View  of  the  Functions 
of  Imitation  and  Benevo- 
lence," i.  58,  63;  ii.  310,  368 

New  York:  Twilight  Club,  i. 
307;  proposed  sociological 
society,  i.  307 

New  York  Saturday,  ii.  206 

New  York  Times,  i.  392 

New  Zealand:  Spencer's  books 
read  but  not  acted  on,  i. 
316;  "Religious  Retro- 
spect, etc.,"  i.  339 

Newcombe,  Mr.,  i.  89  seq. 

Newman,  Francis  W.,  on  pro- 
gramme of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, i.  127 

Newspapers:  provincial,  i.  275; 
examples  of  perversions,  i. 
399;  Americanised  editing, 
i.  402;  South  African  War, 
ii.  152 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac:  Principia, 
i.  98 

Nineteenth  Century,  i.  333,  338 
seq.,  345,  362  seq.,  374;  ii. 
31,  122,  134,  376  seq. 

Nobel  Prize,  nomination  of 
Spencer  for,  ii.  200,  225 


Nonconformist,  i.  45,  46,  49, 
52,  71,  76,  105;  ii.  309, 
375  seq., — and  Independ- 
ent, ii.  375 

Nonconformity,  relations  of 
Spencer  and  his  family  to, 
i.  2,  3,  8,  54,  268 

North  American  Review,  i.  152, 
189  seq.,  263 

North  British  Review,  i.  76, 
91,  92,  97;  ii.  320,  370 

"  Northern  Lights,"  Lancashire 
poem,  ii.  255 

Northumberland  Society  for  the 
Liberation  of  Education 
from  State  Control,  ii.  212 

Nottingham,  i.  11 

Nurses:  certification  of,  ii.  7; 
Spencer's  prejudice  against 
professional,  ii.  217 

ODGEB,  MB.,  i.  397 

Gibers,  H.  G.  M.,  ii.  330 

Oldswinford,  i.  2 

Open  Court,  ii.  61 

Ordish,  Mrs.  i.  43 

"  Origin  and  Function  of  Mu- 
sic," i.  109,  316,  394;  ii. 
327,  371 

"  Origin  of  Animal  Worship," 
ii.  353,  373 

Ouless,  Walter  W.,  R.A.,  com- 
missioned to  paint  Spen- 
cer's portrait,  ii.  104;  pro- 
posal abandoned,  ii.  113 

Outlanders,  in  Transvaal,  ii. 
151  seq. 

"  Outsider,"  contributed  to 
New  York  Times,  i.  393 

"Over-Legislation,"  i.  90,  97; 
ii.  370 

Owen,  Sir  Richard:  i.  84,  86, 
113;  ii.  84,  331,  343;  me- 
morial to,  ii.  17;  Compara- 
tive Osteology,  ii.  376 

Oxford    University:    discussion 


416 


INDEX 


of  Resurrection,  i.  397; 
Junior  Scientific  Club,  ii. 
62;  Romanes  Lecture,  ii. 
62;  Hegelianism,  ii.  201; 
Herbert  Spencer  Lecture- 
ship, ii.  237;  proposed  me- 
morial to  Spencer  in  West- 
minster Abbey  ( signa- 
tures), ii.  241  seq. 

PACKARD,  PROF.  A.  S.,  intro- 
duction of  the  word  "  evo- 
lution," ii.  329  note 

Paget,  Sir  James,  ii.  257 

Paley,  William :  Spencer's 
knowledge  of  his  writings, 
ii.  146 

Pall  Mall  Gazette,  i.  189,  267, 
309,  325,  384,  405;  ii.  73, 
377 

Palliser,  Sir  William,  ii.  254 

Pan-Britannic  movement,  ii. 
24 

Panmixia,  ii.  51 

Parents,  interference  with  re- 
sponsibilities of,  i.  406 

Paris:  visits  and  impressions, 
i.  97,  107,  137,  171,  203, 
257,  274;  events  of  '70-71, 
i.  203 ;  dinner  at  Brabant's, 
i.  257;  Vaillant's  bomb- 
outrage,  ii.  70 

Parkes,  Kineton,  i.  68  note 

Parliament,  members  and  con- 
stituents, ii.  154 

"  Parliamentary  Reform,  the 
Dangers  and  the  Safe- 
guards," i.  125  seq.,  129; 
ii.  372 

Parry,  Sir  C.  Hubert  H.,  ii. 
101 

Pathology,  social  and  physical, 
i.  368 

Patronage  as  condition  to  suc- 
cess, i.  51 

Paul,  C.  Kegan,  letter  to,  on  H. 


George's  Perplexed  Philoso- 
pher, ii.  40 

Peace  Society :  non-resistance 
policy,  i.  294;  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's view,  i.  298 

Peile,  Dr.  J.,  ii.  241 

Pelham,  Prof.  Henry  F.,  ii. 
241 

Pelly,  Sir  Lewis,  i.  Ill,  257 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  i.  262;  ii. 
9,  82.  Letter  to,  i.  309 

Pembroke,  Gertrude,  Countess 
of :  correspondence  with 
Spencer,  ii.  83 

Pennington  [F.],  i.  298 

Penrhyn  Slate  Quarries,  a  visit 
to,  ii.  257 

Perrier,  Edmond,  ii.  75 

Perry,  Prof.,  controversy  with 
Lord  Kelvin  on  cooling  of 
the  Earth,  ii.  179 

Peru,  Ancient,  excessive  offi- 
cialism, ii.  149 

Pewsey,  Wilts.,  i.  386,  400,  409; 
ii.  9,  11,  23  seq.,  58,  65, 
82 

Phayre,  Sir  Arthur,  ii.  254 

Philosopher,  The:  periodical 
projected  by  Spencer,  i. 
59 

Philosophical  Anarchist:  term 
objected  to  as  describing 
individualist,  ii.  69 

Philosophical  Magazine,  i.  59; 
ii.  156,  368 

Philosophy,  unpopularity  of, 
ii.  93 

"Philosophy  of  Style,"  i.  51, 
54,  71,  86;  ii.  319,  369 

Phrenological  Journal,  rejects 
Spencer's  contributions,  i. 
52,  58 

Physics:  recent  rapid  progress 
in,  ii.  170;  current  theory 
of  constitution  of  matter, 
ii.  171;  biological  phenom- 


417 


INDEX 


ena  alien  to,  ii.  339;  (see 
Inorganic  Evolution) 

"Physiological  Units,"  distin- 
guished from  Darwin's 
"  gemmules,"  i.  199 

Physiology:  physics  of,  i.  125; 
ii.  9;  ignores  pathology,  i. 
368;  Huxley  and  Spencer 
on  principles  and  prac- 
tice, ii.  28  seq. 

"Physiology  of  Laughter,"  i. 
125;  ii.  372 

Pictures,  Spencer's  scheme  for 
classifying  traits  of,  ii.  88 

Pilot,  Birmingham  newspaper, 
i.  51,  61,  65,  384,  397;  ii. 
369 

Pitt-Rivers,  General,  ii.  101 

Plants,  circulation  in,  i.  161 
seq.,  200;  ii.  345 

Plato:  Spencer's  knowledge  of 
his  writings,  ii.  147;  the- 
ory of  ideas,  ii.  331 

Plea  for  Liberty,  i.  403  (v.  i. 
411);  ii.  377 

Poetry:  variety  a  desideratum, 
i.  411;  concentration  of 
feeling  and  idea,  ii.  137 

Political  Economy:  takes  no 
account  of  social  pathol- 
ogy, i.  368  seq.  (see  also 
Social  State) 

"  Political  Fetichism,"  ii.  8 

"Political  Institutions"  (a  di- 
vision of  Spencer's  Princi- 
ples of  Sociology),  i.  254, 
274,  275,  282,  286,  331 

Pollock,  Sir  Frederick,  ii.  97 

Ponsonby,  Hon.  J.  G.  B.,  M.P., 
for  Derby,  i.  47 

Poor  Laws,  i.  26;  a  breach  of 
laisses-faire,  i.  213 

Pope's  Homer,  i.  55 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  i. 
211,231,251,  260,  287,  289, 
345,  348,  355;  ii.  4,  89 


Porter,  Noah,  President  of 
Yale  College,  i.  276 

Portsmouth,  Evelyn,  Dowager 
Countess  of,  ii.  86.  Letter 
to,  ii.  208 

Positive  Philosophy  or  Positi- 
vism (see  Comte) 

Positivist  Review,  ii.  379 

Potter,  Richard:  friendship  be- 
gun, i.  60,  413;  visits,  i. 
83,  92,  104,  192,  250,  258, 
308,  328;  suggested  cure 
for  Spencer's  nervous  ail- 
ment, i.  104;  consulted  by 
Spencer  about  George  Eliot 
rumour,  i.  356;  no  sym- 
pathy with  Spencer's  doc- 
trines, ii.  250  seq.  (v. 
344)  ;  never  read  his  books, 
ib. ;  humorous  incident 
concerning  this,  ii.  251. 
Letters  to:  Scotch  scenery, 
i.  94;  an  early  visit  re- 
called, 383;  invitation  to 
the  Argoed,  i.  385;  a  New 
Year's  greeting,  i.  391. 
Letter  from,  Harrison  con- 
troversy, i.  342.  ( For  refs. 
to  daughters,  see  Courtney, 
Cripps,  Holt,  Meinertz- 
hagen,  Webb) 

Potter,  Mrs.:  i.  272;  ii.  251; 
-  domestic  management  crit- 
icised by  Spencer,  ii.  273; 
her  retaliation,  ib.  Let- 
ters to:  religious  exercise, 
i.  104;  a  remarkable  geo- 
logic discovery,  i.  132  seq. 

Pouchat,  i.  191 

Poulton,  Prof.  E.  B.,  ii.  101, 
241 

"  Pour  le  me"rite,"  Prussian 
Order  conferred  on  Spen- 
cer, but  declined,  ii. 
82 

Preston,  Dr.  S.  Tolver,  ii.  381 


418 


INDEX 


Price,  Dr.,  editor  of  Eclectic 
Review,  i.  49  seq. 

Prichard,  W.  B.,  engineer,  i. 
55,  57,  58,  65,  103 

Priestly,  Sir  W.  O.,  i.  288;  ii. 
101 

Principles:  ineffective  without 
appropriate  emotions,  ii. 
61 

Principles  of  Astrogeny:  un- 
written division  of  Syn- 
thetic philosophy,  ii.  158 

Principles  of  Biology:  i.  141; 
ii.  91;  new  ed.,  ii.  56  note, 
115,  118;  revised  ed.,  ii. 
150;  Hector  Macpherson 
on  effect  of  modified  views 
in,  ii.  286;  Professor  A. 
Thomson's  opinion,  ii.  286 ; 
filiation  of  ideas,  ii.  335 
seq. 

Principles  of  Ethics:  i.  255, 
262,  263  seq.,  390,  412;  ii. 
1  seq.,  15,  133;  in  relation 
to  Social  Statics,  ii.  512; 
filiation  of  ideas,  ii.  362 
seq. 

Principles  of  Geogeny,  unwrit- 
ten division  of  Synthetic 
philosophy,  ii.  159 

Principles  of  Psychology:  i.  92, 
96,  100,  184,  192  seq.,  197, 
228,  235,  260,  275  seq., 
281,  283,  304;  ii.  157,  299; 
J.  S.  Mill's  appreciation,  i. 
150 ;  Spencer's  memoran- 
dum on  edition  of  1867,  i. 
184  seq.;  alleged  appropri- 
ation of  its  doctrines  by 
Maudsley,  i.  185,  189;  al- 
leged inconsistencies,  i. 
236  seq.;  inheritance  of 
functional  modifications, 
ii.  55;  postscripts,  ii.  140; 
origin  of  work,  322  seq.; 
evolutionary  conceptions, 


ii.  323  seq.;  filiation  of 
ideas,  ii.  346  seq. 

Principles  of  Sociology:  i.  213, 
229  seq.,  250,  252,  308,  329, 
375,  384,  397;  ii.  1,  120, 
133;  preface  to  Vol.  III., 
reference  to,  i.  25;  arrest 
of  Russian  student  seen 
with,  ii.  207;  filiation  of 
ideas,  ii.  351  seq. 

Proctor,  Richard  A. :  i.  260 ;  on 
Sun's  constitution,  ii.  164; 
Old  and  New  Astronomy, 
ii.  184  note 

Professions,  evolution  of,  ii. 
361 

"Professor  Ward's  Rejoinder," 
ii.  184,  381 

Progress,  anthropocentric  con- 
notation of  term,  ii.  329 
note 

"  Progress :  its  Law  and  Cause," 
Spencer's  essay  on,  i.  108* 
ii.  329,  324,  335  seq.,  370; 
introduction  of  the  word 
"evolution,"  ii.  329  note 

"  Proper  Sphere  of  Govern- 
ment," Spencer's  letters  to 
the  Nonconformist  on,  i. 
45,  48,  52,  71;  ii.  309  seq., 
364,  368 

Prospective  Review,  i.  77 

Protection,  argument  for,  based 
on  Spencer's  writings,  i.  81 

Psychology :  first  approached 
by  Spencer  through  phre- 
nology, i.  52;  how  treated 
by  Spencer,  i.  115;  of 
fishes,  i.  106;  Hector  Mac- 
pherson on  Spencer's  work 
in,  ii.  287;  evolutionary 
conception,  ii.  320  seq., 
346  seq.;  natural  selection, 
ii.  323,  349;  ultimate  ele- 
ment of  mind,  ii.  347 

Public  Health  Act,  ii.  4 


419 


INDEX 


Public    Schools,    proposal     for 

State  control,  ii.  197 
Punch,  i.  55,  234,  386 

QUAKEBS,          colour  -  blindness 

among,  ii.  47 
Quarterly  Review,  i.  9,  111,  113, 

218 

RABIES,  scare  about,  i.  405 

Radicalism,  function  of,  i.  62 

Radium:  its  phenomena  con- 
gruous with  evolution,  ii. 
290 

"  Railway  Morals  and  Railway 
Policy,"  i.  99  seq.;  ii.  370 

Railways,  nuisances  caused  by, 
ii.  5 

Ramsay,  Sir  Andrew,  ii.  257 

Ramsay,  Sir  William;  re- 
searches in  physics,  ii. 
171 

Ransome,  Dr.  (of  Notting- 
ham), i.  102 

"Rationalism,  The  Moral  Col- 
our of,"  i.  288 

Rationalist  Press  Association, 
ii.  211 

Rayleigh,  Lord,  ii.   101,   173 

Reader:  re-organisation,  i.  153 
seq.;  ii.  159,  164 

Reason:  supremacy  of,  i.  234; 
not  dominant  in  mankind, 
ii.  77,  191 

Reasoner,  The,  i.  86 

"  Reasons  for  dissenting  from 
the  philosophy  of  M. 
Comte,"  i.  148;  ii.  372 

Reay,  Lady,  i.  266,  280 

Reay,  Lord,  i.  266;  ii.  101, 
239 

Rebecca  Riots,  i.  52 

"  Recent  Astronomy  and  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis,"  es- 
say by  Spencer,  i.  Ill,  152, 
281;  ii.  158,  165,  172  seq., 


330,     371;     Prof.     Ward's 
criticism,  ii.  386  seq. 
Record  of  Legislation,  i.  67  seq. 
Reichel,  Dr.  H.  R.,  ii.  241 
Reid,  Prof.  J.  S.,  ii.  241 
Relaxation,  gospel  of,  i.  347 
Religion:    science  and,   i.    133; 
unreliability  of  testimony, 
i.  397;   ii.  64;   differentia- 
tion   from    ethics,    ii.    19; 
ghost  theory,  ii.  64,  353 ;  co- 
incidences, ii.  64,  85;  factor 
in  social  evolution,  ii.  355 
seq.  (see  also  Christianity) 
Renan,  Ernest,  i.   169,  279;   ii. 

377 
"Replies  to  Criticisms,"  i.  219; 

ii.  374 

"  Representative    Government," 
essay    by    Spencer    on,    i. 
109;  ii.  371 
Reproduction,    mystery    of,    ii. 

92 

Review  of  Reviews,  ii.  3,  91 
Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  i.  148, 

229 
Revue  Scientifique,  i.   265;    ii. 

374 

Rhys,  Dr.  John,  Oxford,  ii.  241 
Rhythm,  Clerk  Maxwell  on,  ii. 

163 

Rhythm  of  motion,  origin  of 
Spencer's  idea  concerning 
universality  of,  ii.  328 
Ribot,  Prof.  Th.,  translator  of 
Spencer's  Psychology,  i. 
203,  274 

Richard,  Henry,  M.P.,  i.  293 
Riforma,     La,     Italian     news- 
paper, ii.  79 

Ritchie,  Prof.  David  G.,  ii.  101 
Ritter,    Dr.   August,    physicist, 

ii.  330 

Riviere,  Mrs.  Briton,  ii.  130 
Roberts,  Principal  F.  F.,  ii.  241 
Roberts,    Dr.    Isaac:    ii.    173; 


420 


INDEX 


Photographs  of  Stars,  etc., 
ii.  183,  386 

Robertson,  Prof.  G.  Croom:  i. 
229,  252.  Letter  to,  i. 
305 

Robinson,  J.  Armitage,  D.D., 
Dean  of  Westminster:  pro- 
posal for  memorial  to 
Spencer,  ii.  238  seq.;  rea- 
sons for  rejecting  it,  ii. 
244  seq. 

Rogers,  W.  B.,  i.  131 

Roman  Academy  (Accademia 
dei  Lincei),  i.  241  seq.,  258 

Roman  Catholicism,  relapse  in- 
to, how  brought  about,  ii. 
212 

Romanes,  Dr.  George  J.,  i.  240'; 
ii.  51 

Romanes  Lecture,  Oxford,  ii. 
62 

Romans,  Descriptive  Sociology, 
ii.  196  note 

Roscoe,  Sir  Henry  E.,  ii.  101 

Rosse,  Lord,  ii.  158,  386 

Rotifers,  dormant  vitality,  ii. 
83 

Roupell,  Charles,  Official  Ref- 
eree, author  of  billiard 
story,  i.  399  seq. 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  alleged  deriva- 
tion of  Spencer's  doctrines 
from,  ii.  212  seq. 

Royal  Academy,  Herkomer's 
portrait  of  Spencer  at  1898 
exhibition,  ii.  Ill 

Royal  British  Nurses'  Associa- 
tion, ii.  6 

Royal  Institution,  i.  245 

Royal  Lombardian  Institution 
of  Sciences,  etc.,  ii.  81 

Royal  Society:  Spencer's  rea- 
sons for  refusing  nomina- 
tion, i.  222  seq.,  242;  pro- 
posed purchase  of  Darwin's 
house,  ii.  117  seq. 


Royce,  Josiah,  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, ii.  246 

Riicker,  Sir  A.  W.,  Principal  of 
London   University,    letter 
to,  ii.   215 
Ruskin,  John,  ii.  127 
Ruskin  Hall,  Oxford,  ii.  127 
Russell,  Lord  Arthur,  i.  256 
Russell,  Lord  John,  i.  70 
Russell,   Rollo,   i.   266 
Russia:    translation    of    Spen- 
cer's works,  i.  169;  confis- 
cation of  Essays,  ib.;  For- 
eign    Office     reception     to 
meet    the    Czar,     i.    246; 
Jewish  persecutions,  ii.  65 ; 
policy  in   Finland,   ii.    152 
note;    Times    on    Russian 
statesman's    fate,    ii.    191 
note;  translations  of  Spen- 
cer's      works,       ii.       207; 
strange    arrest    of    a    stu- 
dent, ib. 
Rutson,  Mr.,  i.  257 

SABINE,  SIB  EDWABD,  P.R.S.,  i. 
223 

St.  Aidan's  College,  Birken- 
head:  Principal's  apprecia- 
tion of  Spencer,  i.  269 

St.  Andrews,  University  of,  i. 
201 

St.  Andrew's  Medical  Gradu- 
ates' Association :  Spen- 
cer's reason  for  declining 
membership,  i.  201  seq. 

St.  Cloud,  fete  of,  i.  99 

St.  James'  Gazette,  i.  305;  ii. 
375 

St.  John's  Wood:  opposition  to 
railway  extension,  ii.  5 
(see  also  Avenue  Road) 

St.  Leonards,  i.  398  note;  ii. 
20,  62 

Saleeby,  Dr.,  on  radium  and 
evolution,  ii.  290 


421 


INDEX 


Salisbury,  Marquis  of:  British 
Association  address,  i.  317; 
ii.  40,  73 ;  advice  to  "  cap- 
ture the  Board  Schools," 
ii.  197  note 

Salmon  fishers,  effects  of  wad- 
ing on,  ii.  10 

Sanderson,  Prof,  (afterwards 
Sir)  J.  S.  Burdon:  ii.  54 
seq.,  101.  Letter  to,  ii.  54 

Sanitation,  regulation  of,  i.  97 

Sargent,  J.  S.,  R.A.,  ii.  113 

Saturday  Review,  i.  322,  340; 
ii.  5 

Savage,  Dr.  G.  H.,  ii.  101 

Savage,  Rev.  Minot  J.  (Boston, 
U.S.A.):  i.  282,  303;  Spen- 
cer's influence  on  thought, 
ii.  291 

Say,  L£on,  ii.  75 

Sayce,  Prof.  Henry,  i.  275 

"  Scale  of  Equivalents,"  ii.  308, 
368 

Schafer,  Prof.  E.  A.,  ii.  101 

Schelling,  conception  of  life, 
ii.  315 

Scheppig,  Dr.  Richard,  com- 
piler of  Descriptive  Sociol- 
ogy, i.  195,  217 

Schleiden,  J.  M.,  ii.  342 

Schmidt,  Jean,  writer  in 
Figaro,  ii.  70 

School,  educational  magazine, 
ii.  224  note 

Schulek,  Geza,  Buda  Pesth,  ii. 
203  note 

Science:  speculation  and  spe- 
cialism, ii.  278  seq.;  will 
its  progress  affect  Spen- 
cer's philosophy?  ii.  288 
seq. 

Scotland:  impressions  and  vis- 
its, i.  94  seq.,  124,  136, 
189,  227,  240,  247,  328, 
341;  Young  Scots  Society, 
ii.  216;  Spencer's  books 


discussed  in  a  third-class 
carriage,  ii.  258 

Scott,  A.  M.,  letter  to,  ii.  190 

Scott    [Alfred],  ii.   219 

Scott,  D.  H.,  F.R.S.,  ii.  102 

Scrope,  Poulett,  ii.  178 

Seal,  Horace,  letter  to,  ii.  58 
seq. 

Sedgwick  [Prof.  Adam]:  i.  86; 
"  Discourse  on  the  Studies 
of  Cambridge  (1835),"  ii. 
281 

Sedgwick,  Adam,  F.R.S.,  ii.  117 

Sella,  Quinto,  President  of  Ro- 
man Academy,  i.  243  seq. 

Sellar,  Alexander,  i.  257 

Sellar,  Mrs.   (see  Craig-Sellar) 

Sellar,  T.,  i.  257 

Sellar  [Prof.  W.  Y.],  ii.  10 

Sex,  limitation  of  heredity  by, 
ii.  116 

Shadows,  projection  of,  i.  29 

Shakespeare's  dialogues,  ii.  266 

Sharp,  Dr.  David:  ii.  50;  inor- 
ganic evolution,  ii.  155. 
Letter  from,  ii.  53  seq. 

Sheep:  interbreeding  of  unlike 
varieties,  ii.  16 

Shelley,  Percy  B. :  Spencer's 
admiration  for,  i.  68;  kin- 
ship of  ideas,  ib.  note 

Shickle,  Miss  Charlotte:  ii.  75; 
reminiscences  of  Spencer, 
ii.  268 

Shoemakers'  strike  against  ma- 
chinery, i.  122 

Shrewsbury  Castle,  i.  31 

Sidgwick,  Prof.  Henry:  i.  262, 
282;  ii.  102;  criticism  of 
Social  Statics,  i.  232;  pro- 
moter of  Mind,  ii.  202 

Silsbee,  E.  A.,  i.  128,  137,  371 
seq. 

Simmons,  George,  i.  54 

Simon,  Jules,  i.  310 

"  Sins  of  Legislators,"  i.  325 


422 


INDEX 


"Skew  Arches,"  i.  33;  ii.  308, 
367 

Skilton,  J.  A.:  Brooklyn  Ethi- 
cal Association,  i.  392. 
Letters  to,  i.  392,  393;  ii. 
35,  38  seq. 

Smalley,  G.  W.,  i.  255,  257 

Smith,  Alexander,  Edinburgh 
poet,  i.  87 

Smith,  C.  Fletcher,  letter  to,  ii. 
216 

Smith,  Flora  (daughter  of 
Octavius  Smith)  :  sings 
"  Tennyson's  Farewell,"  i. 
413;  recalls  pleasant  times 
at  Ardtornish,  ii.  218.  Let- 
ters to,  i.  266,  288,  315, 
365,  413 

Smith,  Prof.  Goldwin:  i.  287; 
ii.  375;  Canadian  copy- 
right, ii.  89 

Smith,  Octavius,  of  Ardtornish, 
i.  82,  106,  258,  261 

Smith,  Mrs.  Octavius:  i.  124, 
256,  258;  Spencer's  affec- 
tion for,  ii.  252.  Letters 
to,  i.  239,  253 

Smith,  W.  Valentine  (son  of 
Octavius  Smith)  :  i.  124, 
288.  Letters  to,  i.  258, 
413 

Social  insects,  distinguished 
from  a  human  society,  ii. 
132 

"Social  Organism,"  i.  198;  ii. 
146,  333,  352,  372 

Social  State:  Principles  of  lib- 
erty, i.  121;  franchise,  i. 
122  seq.;  taxation,  ib.; 
female  suffrage,  i.  180  seq.; 
controversies  with  Huxley, 
i.  198;  ii.  28;  laissez-faire, 
i.  213;  law  of  equal  free- 
dom, i.  233;  ii.  313,  364; 
political  parties,  i.  320 
seq.;  ii.  190;  free  admin- 


istration of  justice,  i.  322; 
ii.  68  seq.;  land  question, 
i.  331;  ii.  26  seq.;  educa- 
tion, i.  344,  375;  ii.  127, 
224;  social  pathology,  i. 
368  seq.;  ii.  77;  war,  i. 
375;  outcry  against  dimin- 
ishing evils,  i.  376;  social- 
ism, i.  401  seq.;  ii.  20, 
126,  133,  152,  197,  216; 
assumption  of  parental  re- 
sponsibilities by  State,  i. 
405  seq.;  unexpected  re- 
sults of  measures,  i.  406; 
the  higher  socialism,  ii. 
33;  future  outlook,  ii. 
34,  79,  136;  State  inter- 
ference not  identical  with 
social  cooperation,  ii.  59; 
where  demanded,  ib.  seq.; 
nostrums  for  curing  disor- 
ders condemned,  ii.  60;  ma- 
jority rule,  ii.  61;  survival 
of  the  fittest,  ii.  76,  314; 
conditions  of  future  ad- 
vance, ii.  77  seq.;  socialism 
and  evolution,  ii.  79;  data 
of  political  science,  ii.  126; 
centralisation,  i.  127;  in- 
equality of  individuals  in 
social  aggregate,  ii.  132 
seq.,  213;  alleged  socialis- 
tic implications  of  Dar- 
win's and  Spencer's  writ- 
ings, ii.  133;  remote  effects 
ignored,  ii.  149;  self-regu- 
lation versus  coercive 
methods,  ib.;  Church  and 
State,  ii.  214  seq.;  ideas 
in  Social  Statics,  ii.  311 
seq.;  moral  modifiability 
of  man,  ii.  314;  biological 
parallelism,  ib.;  religion 
and  political  factors  in 
evolution,  ii.  355 
Social  Statics:  i.  135,  290; 


423 


INDEX 


Spencer's  experience  in 
publishing,  i.  88;  Indian 
official's  appreciation,  i. 
Ill;  views  subsequently 
modified,  i.  145  seq.;  ii.  1; 
female  suffrage,  i.  180  seq. ; 
H.  Sidgwick  on,  i.  232;  E. 
de  Laveleye,  i.  328;  Hux- 
ley on  Spencer's  review  of, 
i.  367;  the  land  question, 
ii.  26  seq.,  38,  43;  revised 
ed.,  ii.  412;  written  with- 
out previous  special  train- 
ing, ii.  145  seq.;  "National 
Education,"  ii.  212;  equal- 
ity of  man  not  alleged,  ii. 
213;  filiation  of  ideas,  ii. 
311  seq.;  ethical  doctrines, 
ii.  312;  evolutionary  con- 
ception, ii.  316,  319,  333 

Socialism   (see  Social  State) 

Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children,  i.  405 
seq.;  ii.  65,  377 

Society  of  Authors:  nomination 
of  Spencer  for  Nobel  prize, 
ii.  200 

Sociology:  i.  384,  397;  how 
treated  by  Spencer,  i.  115; 
proposal  for  professorship, 
i.  280;  evolutionary  con- 
ceptions, ii.  351  seq.;  Hec- 
tor Macpherson  on  Spen- 
cer's work  in,  ii.  287  (see 
also  Social  State) 

Sorley,  Prof.  W.  R.,  ii.  102,  241 

South  Africa:  Basuto  ques- 
tion, i.  292 

South  African  War:  ii.  151 
seq.,  190,  191  seq.;  Con- 
ciliation Committee,  ii. 
153;  Spencer's  last  book, 
ii.  206  seq.;  testimonial  to 
ex-President  Steyn,  ii.  209, 
226;  Boer  Relief  Fund,  ii. 
210 


South  Place  Ethical  Society,  ii. 
190 

Southampton,  design  for  dock, 
i.  55,  57 

Space,  infinity  of,  ii.  83,  233 

"  Space  Consciousness,"  i.  394 ; 
ii.  377 

Spalding,  D.  A.,  i.  234 

Sparks,  Jared,  i.  131 

Speaker,  The  (weekly  journal, 
now  The  Nation),  ii.  152, 
381 

"  Specialised  Administration," 
i.  198;  ii.  352,  372 

Specialism  in  relation  to  specu- 
lation, ii.  278  seq. 

Spectator,  The,  i.  100,  322;  ii. 
69,  129,  134,  380  seq. 

Spectrum,  and  evolution  of  ele- 
ments, ii.  168 

Spencer  family  in  Derbyshire, 
i.  3 

Spencer,  Anna,  wife  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Spencer,  i.  372, 
413.  Letter  to,  i.  413 

Spencer,  Catherine  (nee  Tay- 
lor ) ,  Spencer's  grand- 
mother, i.  4 

Spencer,  Earl,  confused  with 
Spencer  by  continental 
writers,  ii.  226 

Spencer,  Henry,  Spencer's  uncle, 
i.  5,  261 

Spencer,  Henry,  Spencer's  cous- 
in, i.  16,  19 

Spencer,  Herbert:  I.  Ancestry. 
II.  Career.  III.  Character- 
istics. IV.  Opinions.  V. 
Recreations.  ( For  Writ- 
ings see  Appendix  C  (ii. 
366)  and  General  Index) 
7.  Ancestry: 

Remote :  foreign  immi- 
grants at  Stourbridge, 
i.  1 ;  maternal  ances- 
tors, i.  2;  followers  of 


424 


INDEX 


Spencer,    Herbert :    Ancestry — 

Cont'd. 

Wesley,  ib.;  paternal 
line,  i.  3  seq.;  grand- 
parents, ib.;  their 
children,  i.  4  seq.; 
Spencer's  father  (v. 
W.  G.  Spencer),  i.  5; 
mother,  i.  7 

II.  Career: 

Childhood  and  youth : 
birth  and  baptism  at 
Derby,  i.  9;  named 
after  writer  of  verses, 
ib.;  sole  survivor  of 
large  family,  i.  10; 
life  at  Nottingham,  i. 
11;  schooling  at  Der- 
by, i.  12  seq.;  nar- 
row escape  from 
drowning,  i.  13;  men- 
tal and  moral  traits, 
i.  14;  character  influ- 
enced by  family  asso- 
ciations, ib. ;  becomes 
his  uncle's  pupil  at 
Hinton,  i.  16;  rebels 
against  curriculum 
and  runs  away,  ib. 
seq.;  marvellous  feat 
of  endurance,  ib.  seq.; 
back  at  Hinton,  i. 
17;  studies  and  pur- 
suits, i.  18  seq.;  lit- 
erary style,  ib.;  use- 
ful occupations,  i.  20; 
change  in  conduct  at 
Hinton,  i.  21;  occa- 
sional diffidence,  i.  22; 
laments  his  want  of 
energy,  ib.;  attitude 
towards  father's  spir- 
itual entreaties,  i.  23 
seq.;  grief  at  death  of 
infant  sister,  i.  25; 
contributes  article  to 


Spencer,     Herbert:      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

local  magazine,  ib.; 
also  letter  on  Poor 
Law,  i.  26;  returns 
home,  ib.;  question  of 
a  profession,  i.  27;  in- 
terval of  teaching,  ib. 

Engineering:  London 
and  Birmingham  Rail- 
way, i.  29;  favours 
decimal  system,  ib.; 
joins  Birmingham  and 
Gloucester  Railway, 
ib.;  likes  the  pro- 
fession, ib. ;  neat 
draughtsmanship,  ib.; 
relations  with  col- 
leagues, ib.;  occupa- 
tion with  serious  prob- 
lems, i.  30;  attitude 
towards  official  supe- 
riors, i.  31  seq.,  38; 
nicknamed  "  Defford  " 
by  colleagues,  i.  32; 
invents  velocimeter 
and  dynamometer,  ib.; 
electro-magnetic  exper- 
iments, ib.;  concern 
for  health,  i.  34;  ego- 
tism, i.  35;  neglect  of 
study,  ib.;  chief's  es- 
timate, i.  36;  interest 
in  religious  and  social 
questions,  i.  37;  gets 
"  the  sack,"  and  de- 
clines new  appoint- 
ment, i.  38;  tribute 
to  late  chief,  i.  39; 
friendship  with  chief's 
niece,  ib.;  and  chil- 
dren, i.  40;  home 
again,  ib.;  develop- 
ment reviewed,  ib. 

Journalism,  1841  -  44 : 
How  stimulated,  i.  42; 


425 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

programme  of  daily 
routine,  ib.;  miscel- 
laneous activities,  i. 
43 ;  engineering  pa- 
pers, ib.  seq.;  politics 
and  religion,  i.  44; 
radicalism,  i.  45;  sets 
a  fashion  in  headgear, 
ib.;  letters  to  Noncon- 
formist on  "  Proper 
Sphere  of  Govern- 
ment," ib.,  i.  48;  par- 
ticipation in  local  pol- 
itics, i.  46;  complete 
suffrage  propaganda, 
i.  47;  goes  to  London 
to  pursue  literature,  i. 
48;  futile  negotiations 
with  editors,  ib.  et 
seq. ;  mistaken  ideas 
about  literary  success, 
i.  51;  further  contri- 
butions to  Noncon- 
formist, i.  52;  ex- 
plains his  "  national 
specific,"  ib. ;  writes 
address  for  Anti- State 
Church  Association,  i. 
54 ;  thinks  about  style, 
ib.;  another  engineer- 
ing engagement,  i.  55; 
general  reading,  ib.; 
writes  verses,  ib.  ; 
ideas  for  inventions, 
ib.;  pecuniary  straits 
— down  to  last  penny, 
i.  56  seq.;  home  again, 
i.  58 ;  phrenological 
and  biological  essays, 
ib.;  edits  his  father's 
shorthand,  i.  59;  a 
new  periodical  pro- 
jected, ib.  (cf.  i.  46); 
a  valued  friendship  be- 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

gun,  i.  60;   sub-editor 
of  Pilot,  i.  61 

Engineering,  second  peri- 
od, 1845-1848:  Unset- 
tled prospects,  i.  64; 
railway  survey  work, 
i.  65;  punctiliousness 
curtails  promising  en- 
gagement, ib.;  new 
position  under  Prich- 
ard,  ib.;  more  inven- 
tions, i.  66  seq.;  mis- 
cellaneous reading,  i. 
68;  meets  Chapman, 
publisher,  and  others 
of  note,  i.  69 ;  political 
activity,  i.  70;  effect 
of  heterodoxy  on  so- 
cial relations,  ib.; 
reading  and  collecting 
material  for  Social 
Statics,  i.  77;  method 
of  studying  style,  ib.; 
question  of  livelihood 
again  urgent,  i.  72; 
joins  the  Economist,  i. 
73 

Journalism  and  Author- 
ship, 1848-1857:  work 
on  the  Economist,  L 
74;  progress  with  So- 
cial Statics,  ib.;  fa- 
ther's criticisms,  i. 
75;  fixing  on  a  title, 
ib.;  press  reviews,  i. 
76;  R.  Button's  criti- 
cism, i.  77;  friend's 
objections,  ib.;  chap- 
ter on  Education  re- 
printed, i.  78;  Bulwer 
Lytton  thereon,  ib.; 
signs  of  growing  ap- 
preciation, i.  79  seq.; 
emigration  discussed, 


426 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

i.  80;  lodgings  in  Pad- 
dington,  i.  81 ;  tries 
vegetarianism,  ib.;  pa- 
per on  the  Water 
>  Question,  i.  82;  new 
friendships —  Octavius 
Smith,  G.  H.  Lewes, 
Marian  Evans,  ib.; 
Masson,  i.  83;  ar- 
ticle on  Population, 
ib.;  misunderstanding 
with  Lewes,  i.  84; 
friendship  with  Hux- 
ley and  Tyndall  begun, 
i.  85 ;  "  Haythorne 
Papers,"  ib. ;  high 
opinion  of  Alex.  Smith 
as  a  poet,  i.  87  seq.;  a 
great  discovery,  i.  87; 
bookselling  agitation, 
i.  88;  uncle's  death, 
ib.;  legacy,  i.  89;  more 
articles,  i.  90;  leaves 
Economist,  i.  91;  pro- 
jected articles  on  Edu- 
cation and  Comet,  i. 
92  seq.;  Leader  asks 
for  papers,  i.  93;  a 
Continental  tour,  *6. 
seq. ;  overstrain  in 
Switzerland,  i.  95 ; 
more  "  Haythorne  Pa- 
pers," i.  96;  article  on 
Comte,  ib. ;  writing 
the  Psychology,  i.  97; 
his  opinion  of  it,  ib.; 
a  holiday  in  France, 
ib.  seq.;  impressions 
on  Paris,  i.  99;  an 
article  on  railways, 
ib.  seq.;  "hard  up" 
again,  i.  100;  three 
months  at  home,  ib.; 
a  nervous  breakdown, 


Spencer,     Herbert:     Career  — 
Cont'd. 

i.  101 ;  Psychology 
published,  ib.;  a  tour 
in  pursuit  of  health,  i. 
102;  his  theories  and 
remedies  for  ill-health, 
ib.  seq.;  an  oppor- 
tune windfall,  i.  103; 
grubs  up  tree-stumps, 
ib.;  marriage  and  reli- 
gious exercise  sug- 
gested, i.  104;  repug- 
nance to  latter,  ib.; 
an  enjoyable  visit  to 
the  Potters,  i.  105; 
repudiates  charge  of 
materialism  and  athe- 
ism, ib.  (v.  ii.  370)  ; 
meets  Bain,  i.  106; 
first  visit  to  Ardtor- 
nish,  ib.;  calls  upon 
Comte  in  Paris,  i. 
107;  a  smoke  consum- 
ing invention  ends  in 
smoke,  ib.;  first  New 
Year  dinner  with  Hux- 
leys,  i.  108.;  more  ar- 
ticles, ib.  seq. 
Synthetic  Philosophy 
(1858-1896):  Scheme 
sent  to  father,  i.  110; 
articles  for  the  quar- 
terlies, ib.,  i.  Ill  seq.; 
compliment  from  an 
Indian  official,  ib. ; 
war  rumours  stop  a 
trip  to  France,  ib.;  at- 
tack on  Owen,  i.  112; 
futile  endeavours  to 
obtain  post  under  gov- 
ernment, i.  114  seq., 
125;  correspondence 
with  Mill  on  political 
questions,  i.  122  seq.; 
gets  over  dread  of  so- 


427 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert:      Career —      Spencer,     Herbert:      Career — 


Cont'd. 

ciety,  i.  124;  more  ar- 
ticles, i.  125 

1860. —  Programme 
of  philosophy  distrib- 
uted, i.  126  seq.;  pri- 
ority to  Origin  of 
Species,  i.  128;  You- 
mans  offers  coopera- 
tion, i.  129;  influen- 
tial support  from 
America,  i.  131;  writ- 
ing First  Principles, 
ib.;  another  opportune 
legacy,  i.  133  seq.; 
health  again  unset- 
tled, i.  134;  First 
Principles  completed, 
i.  136;  its  reception,  i. 
137 

1862.  —  Bio  logy  be- 
gun, i.  141;  corre- 
spondence with  Mill 
on  Utilitarianism,  ib. 
seq.;  arrangements  for 
publishing  in  Amer- 
ica, i.  144;  earlier 
opinions  modified,  i. 
146  seq.,  180  seq.; 
health  improves,  i.  152 

1864.— Biology,  Vol. 
I.  finished,  i.  152;  re- 
organising Reader,  i. 
153;  controversy  with 
Mill,  i.  154  seq.;  in- 
vestigation of  plant 
circulation,  i.  161  seq.; 
cessation  of  Philoso- 
phy announced,  i.  165; 
movement  for  averting 
it,  ib.;  American  tes- 
timonial, i.  168; 
French  translations,  i. 
169 

1867. — Reorganising 

428 


Cont'd. 

First  Principles,  i. 
171;  father's  death,  i. 
173;  mother's  death, 
ib.;  relations  with 
parents  reviewed,  i. 
174  seq.;  revising  Psy- 
chology, i.  184;  pres- 
ent writer  engaged  as 
secretary,  i.  185;  De- 
scriptive Sociology 
started,  i.  185  seq.; 
tries  a  course  of 
rackets  for  his  nerves, 
i.  187 

1868.  — Election  to 
Athenaeum,  i.  188; 
a  small  controversy 
about  spontaneous  gen- 
eration, i.  190 

1870.— First  vol.  of 
revised  Psychology  is- 
sued, i.  192 

1872.  — Second  vol. 
of  Psychology  finished, 
i.  193;  gives  himself 
ten  years  to  complete 
the  system,  i.  194;  De- 
scriptive Sociology 
continued  spite  of 
heavy  cost,  ib.;  more 
parentheses,  ib.  seq.; 
controversy  with  Hux- 
ley, i.  197;  prestige 
receives  a  "  little 
thrust "  from  Amer- 
ica, i.  198;  Academic 
honours  declined,!.  201 
seq. ;  Gazelles'  Intro- 
duction, i.  203  (v.  i. 
225  seq.)  ;  Ribot  trans- 
lates the  Psychology, 
i.  205;  naming  of  the 
Philosophy  further 
considered,  i.  206;  ob- 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

jections  to  terms 
"  Positive  "  and  "  Cos- 
mic," ib.  seq.;  rea- 
sons for  selecting 
"  Synthetic,"  i.  208 
(v.  i.  225)  ;  Interna- 
tional Scientific  Series 
started,  i.  209  seq.; 
The  Study  of  Sociol- 
ogy, i.  211;  reply  to 
Martineau,  i.  212 

1873.  —  Consulted 
about  Japanese  insti- 
tutions, i.  213;  inter- 
est in  disestablish- 
ment, i.  214;  corre- 
spondence with  Mr. 
Gladstone  concerning 
criticism,  ib.  seq. ; 
cordial  relations  en- 
sue, i.  217  (v.  i.  222)  ; 
Descriptive  Sociology 
causes  worry  and  trou- 
ble, ib.  (see  i.  230)  ; 
replies  to  criticisms,  i. 
218  seq.;  obituary  no- 
tice of  Mill,  i.  221; 
reasons  for  not  join- 
ing Royal  Society,  i. 
222  seq.;  British 
Association  Meeting, 
Belfast,  i.  227 

1874. — Principles  of 
Sociology  begun,  i. 
230;  its  destructive 
nature,  i.  231  seq.; 
further  revision  of 
First  Principles,  i. 
232 

1875. — Begins  Auto- 
biography, i.  234 ; 
keeps  away  from  Tyn- 
dall's  wedding,  i.  241; 
election  to  Roman 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

Academy,  ib.;  desires 
it  to  be  cancelled,  i. 
242;  request  with- 
drawn, i.  244;  nomi- 
nation for  Lord  Rec- 
torships, Edinburgh 
and  Aberdeen,  de- 
clined, i.  245  seq.; 
invitation  to  Foreign 
Office  reception  de- 
clined, i.  246  seq.; 
first  vol.  of  Principles 
of  Sociology,  i.  250 
seq.,  253 

1877.— Ill-health,  i. 
252 ;  recuperates  at 
Ardtornish,  i.  253 ; 
"  Ceremonial  Institu- 
tions," ib.  seq.,  i.  257, 
267;  a  bad  time,  i. 
255;  tries  the  social 
distraction  cure,  i. 
256;  "Data  of  Eth- 
ics," i.  257,  262  seq.; 
attends  Lewes's  fu- 
neral, i.  261 

1879.— A  holiday  in 
the  Riviera,  i.  261; 
visit  to  Wilton,  ib.; 
"  Political  Institu- 
tions "  begun,  ib., 
i.  275 ;  appreciation 
from  theologians,  i. 
269;  visit  to  Egypt, 
i.  271  seq.;  intercourse 
with  celebrities,  i. 
279 ;  proposal  for 
chair  of  Sociology  at 
Liverpool,  i.  280;  ab- 
surd rumours,  i.  281 

1880.  — More  en- 
counters with  critics, 
i.  282  seq.;  Tait's  at- 
tack, i.  283;  George 


429 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert:      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

Eliot's  death  and  fu- 
neral, i.  284;  contro- 
versy with  Goldwin 
Smith,  i.  288;  plan- 
ning visit  to  America, 
i.  289 

1882.— Meeting  with 
Henry  George,  i.  290; 
cessation  of  Descrip- 
tive Sociology,  ib.; 
generous  offer  from 
America,  ib.;  Anti- 
Aggression  League,  i. 
295  seq.;  "Political 
Institutions  "  finished, 
i.  296;  Darwin's  fu- 
neral, ib.;  visit  to 
America,  i.  299  seq.; 
banquet  and  speech  at 
Delmonico's,  i.  299, 
306 

1883.— Last  visit  to 
Ardtornish,  i.  315; 
Edinburgh  Review  at- 
tacks Philosophy,  i. 
318;  "game  cure,"  i. 
319;  political  articles, 
ib.  seq. 

1884.  —  Asked  to 
stand  for  Leicester,  i. 
319  seq.;  Boehm's 
bust,  i.  326;  more  side 
currents,  i.  327;  reli- 
gious discussion,  i. 
335  seq. ;  controversy 
with  Harrison,  i.  339 
seq. 

1885.— "Ecclesiasti- 
cal Institutions  "  fin- 
ished, i.  329,  335, 
356;  "Factors  of 
Organic  Evolution," 
i.  329,  359  seq.; 
revised  views  on  land 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

question,  i.  330;  Har- 
rison controversy  re- 
published  in  America, 
i.  346  seq.;  book  sup- 
pressed, i.  350  seq.; 
relations  with  George 
Eliot — suggested  dis- 
claimer, i.  356  seq. 

1886.— Extreme  de- 
pression, i.  364;  death 
of  Lott,  i.  366;  a  so- 
journ at  Brighton,  i. 
368 

1887.  —  Death  of 
Youmans,  i.  371;  in- 
terest in  Hinton  vil- 
lage library,  i.  372; 
children's  visits,  i. 
373;  at  Bournemouth 
with  Potters,  ib. 

1888. — Back  in  Lon- 
don, i.  374,  377;  pro- 
posal for  a  portrait,  i. 
378;  with  Grant  Allen 
at  Dorking,  i.  379 ;  an- 
other loan  of  children, 
i.  381;  interest  in 
their  welfare,  i.  382; 
Pilot  days  recalled,  i. 
384 

1889.  —  Boarding- 
house  life  at  an  end, 
i.  386;  manage  at  St. 
John's  Wood  initiated, 
ib.;  a  summer  in  Wilt- 
shire, ib. ;  honours 
from  Bologna  and 
Copenhagen,  i.  389 
seq.;  an  American 
newspaper  attack,  i. 
392  seq.;  a  billiard 
story  put  right,  i.  398 ; 
controversy  on  land 
question,  ii.  26  seq.; 


430 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

rupture  with  Huxley, 
ii.  28  seq.  (see  post, 
1893) 

1890.— Another  at- 
tack by  Huxley,  ii. 
37;  campaign  against 
socialism,  i.  400  seq. 

1891.— Visit  to  Tyn- 
dall,  i.  410;  pleasures 
of  Ardtornish  recalled, 
i.  412  seq. 

1892.— Death  of  Mr. 
Potter,  i.  414;  com- 
pleting the  Ethics,  ii. 
1  seq.;  asked  to  be- 
come an  Alderman,  ii. 
4;  protest  against  a 
railway  invasion,  ii. 
5 ;  project  for  a  "  Rec- 
ord of  Legislation,"  ii. 
8;  life  in  Wiltshire, 
ii.  9;  consulted  on 
Japanese  affairs,  ii.  11 
seq. ;  Ethics  finished, 
ii.  18;  winter  resi- 
dence in  London 
ceases,  ii.  20 

1892-1895.  —  Weis- 
mann  controversy,  ii. 
43  seq. 

1893.  —       Henry 
George's  onslaught,  ii. 
37  seq.;  domestic  trou- 
bles,   ii.    21,    58;    rec- 
onciliation with  Hux- 
ley, ii.  37 

1894.  — Letters      to 
Times    on    bookselling 
question,    ii.    70   seq.; 
dissolution  of  manage 
contemplated,  ii.  75 

1895.  —     Prussian 
Royal   Order  declined, 
ii.    80;    also    honours 


Spencer,     Herbert :      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

from  foreign  acad- 
emies, ib.  seq.;  story 
about  eating  tallow 
candles  in  engineering 
days,  ii.  80;  death  of 
Huxley,  ii.  82 

1896.  —  Correspond- 
ence with  Countess  of 
Pembroke  on  meta- 
physical questions,  ii. 
83  seq.;  proposals  for 
portrait  declined,  ii. 
86  seq.;  death  of 
George  Holme,  ii.  92. 
Letters  to  Times  on 
Metric  system,  ii.  94; 
the  Philosophy  com- 
pleted, ii.  95  (see  ii. 
204) 

Last  years  at  Brigh- 
ton, 1896-1903  (see  ii. 
128,  130) 

1896.  —  Letter  of 
congratulation,  ii.  96 
seq.;  portrait  commis- 
sioned, ii.  104 

1897.— More  degrees 
declined,  ii.  107 

1898. — Portrait  fin- 
ished, ii.  109;  his  dis- 
satisfaction with  it,  ii. 
110;  national  policy 
denounced,  ii.  135;  Mr. 
Scawen  Blunt  insti- 
gated to  write  a  poem, 
ii.  136 

1899.—"  Filiation  of 
Ideas"  (Appendix  B) 
written,  Biology  re- 
vised, ii.  115,  150;  op- 
position to  South  Af- 
rican War,  ii.  151 
seq.,  190  seq. 

1900.— First  Princi- 


431 


INDEX 


Spencer,     Herbert:      Career  — 
Cont'd. 

pies  revised,  ii.  150, 
186;  80th  birthday 
congratulations,  ii. 
150 

1901-02.— Last  book, 
ii.  186,  188  seq.,  205 
seq. 

1902. — Put  forward 
for  Nobel  Prize,  ii. 
200  (see  ii.  225);  con- 
dition at  82,  ii.  204; 
last  visit  to  country, 
ii.  207  seq.,  212;  tes- 
timonial to  ex-Presi- 
dent Steyn,  ii.  209, 
226 

1903. — London  Uni- 
versity offers  a  degree, 
ii.  214;  last  birthday 
congratulations,  ii. 
217;  illness,  ii.  217; 
pleasant  reminders  of 
the  past,  ii.  218;  death 
of  Bain,  ii.  221  (see 
ii.  201);  visit  from 
Mr.  John  Morley,  ii. 
221;  correspondence 
with  him  concerning 
funeral  address,  ii. 
222  seq.  (see  ii.  228)  ; 
Lecky's  death,  ii.  225; 
last  letter,  ii.  226;  vis- 
its from  friends,  ib.; 
last  words,  ii.  227; 
death,  ib.;  cremation, 
ii.  228;  Mr.  (Lord) 
Courtney's  funeral  ad- 
dress, ii.  229  seq.; 
tomb  in  Highgate 
Cemetery,  ii.  234; 
manifestations  of  sym- 
pathy, ii.  235 ;  Herbert 
Spencer  Lectureship 
founded  at  Oxford,  ii. 


Spencer,     Herbert :     Career  — 
Cont'd. 

237 ;  proposed  memo- 
rial in  Westminster 
Abbey,  ii.  238  seq.; 
the  Dean's  reply,  ii. 
242 ;  reminiscences  of 
friends,  ii.  250  seq.; 
his  place  in  the  his- 
tory of  thought,  ii. 
277  seq. 

III.  Characteristics :  gen- 
erally, ii.  246  seq.,  305 
seq. 

Administrative,  ii.  254, 
272 

Agnosticism,  ii.  119  seq., 
249 

Amusements,  fondness 
for,  ii.  297 

Analysis,  ii.  306,  329 

Argumentativeness,  i. 
39  (v.  ii.  263) 

Artistic,  i.  12,  19,  33 
seq. 

Authority,  disregard  of, 
i.  12,  14,21,  171,  321; 
ii.  123,  246,  305,  309 
seq.,  331 

Books,  objection  to  pres- 
ence of,  ii.  117 

Brusquerie,  ii.  259 

Castle-building,  i.  66; 
ii.  298,  306 

Casuality,  ii.  124  seq., 
249,  305,  308 

Ceremonial,  aversion  to, 
i.  246,  297;  ii.  249 

Children,  liking  for,  i. 
40,  105,  373,  381; 
ii.  9 

Classics,  aversion  from, 
i.  17  seq.;  ii.  147, 
306  seq. 

Club  life,  ii.  254  seq. 

Combativeness,  i.  376 


432 


INDEX 


Spencer,   H. :    Characteristics — 
Cont'd. 

Concentration,  ii.  265 
Conscientiousness,  i.   32, 

367 

Consistency,  ii.  30,  44 
Conversational,  ii.  256 
Courteousness,  ii.  255, 

271 

Criticism,     sensitiveness 
to,  ii.  35,  275;  prone- 
ness  to,  ii.  273  seq. 
Deductive    tendency,    ii. 
56,  263,  307,  313,  338 
Detachment,  ii.  307 
Distrust,  ii.   270 
Dogmatism,  ii.  250,  263 
Domesticity,  ii.  255,  271 
Ecclesiasticism,  aversion 

from,  ii.  354 
Egotism,  v.  ii.  258 
Erudition,  ii.  144  seq. 
Femininity,  ii.  253 
Filial    affection,    i.    177 

seq. 

Friendship,  ii.  250  seq. 
Health,    concern    for,    i. 

34,   102,  410 

Honours,  indifference  to, 
i.  222,  242;  ii.  40, 
80,  105,  257 

Ideality,  ii.  307,  312,  314 
Idleness,  i.  396;   ii.  261, 

297,  308 

Individualism  (see  Opin- 
ions, Social  State) 
Individuality,   i.   23;    ii. 

309 
Intellectual,  ii.  143,  147, 

261,  275,  307 
Inventiveness,  i.   19,  28, 
30,     32,     33,     56,     59, 
65,   107;   ii.  249,  308, 
311 

Irritability,  ii.  274 
Judgment,  ii.  259 

433 


Spencer,   H. :    Characteristics — 
Cont'd. 

Linguistics,          aversion 

from,    i.    17    seq.;    ii. 

306 
Mathematical,  i.  16  seq., 

28,    32    seq.;    ii.    146, 

174,  306 
Memory,  ii.  261 
Method,  ii.  266 
Moral,  ii.  44,  276 
Music,  ii.   131,  267 
Nature,  study,  ii.  147 
Optimism,  i.   54,  56,  63, 

92 

Originality,  i.  84,  226 
Persistence,  i.  64 
Physical,     ii.     110,    246 

seq. 

Political,  ii.  3  (see  Opin- 
ions) 

Punctiliousness,  i.  363 
Principles,  ii.  247 
Radicalism,  i.  45,  62  seq. 
Reading,  aversion  to,  ii. 

247,  267 
Restraint,  impatience  of, 

i.  16 

Scepticism,  ii.  217 
Self-advertisement,  aver- 
sion from,  i.  213,  226; 

ii.  65  seq.,  96 
Self-assertion,   i.    21,   29 
Self-confidence,  i.  21  seq., 

31,    34;    ii.    250,    307 

seq. 
Sincerity,  i.  70  seq.,  177; 

ii.  269,  276 
Singing,  ii.  267 
Social,    i.    299,    381;    ii. 

253  seq. 
Study,     aversion     from, 

i.   16    (v.  reading) 
Style,  literary,  i.  18,  50 

seq.,   54,    71,    74   seq., 

79,  264  seq.,  307 


INDEX 


Spencer,  H.:    Characteristics —       Spencer,    Herbert:    Opinions — 


Cont'd. 

Sympathy,  i.  410;  ii.  259 

Tact,  ii.  255 

Unconventionality,  ii. 
271 

Vanity,  v.  i.  98;   ii.  258 

Wealth,  indifference  to, 
i.  218  seq.,  230;  ii.  39, 
148,  269 

Will  power,  ii.  217,  227 
IV.  Opinions. 

America:  Civil  war,  i. 
140;  political  institu- 
tions, i.  278  seq.;  ii. 
7;  women,  i.  376; 
Chinese  exclusion,  ii. 
17;  impending  crisis, 
ii.  78 

Art,  i.  99;  ii.  137 

Athleticism,   ii.   24 

Carlyle,  i.  68;  ii.  93,  198 

Cause,  conception  of,  ii. 
125 

Character,  ii.  149 

Children,  regimen,  i. 
382;  ii.  10  (see  Par- 
ents) 

Christianity,  i.  293,  411; 
ii.  60,  153,  200,  212 

Cooperation,  ii.  65 

Coincidences,  ii.  64,  85, 
200 

Critics,  i.  267,  280,  323 

Disestablishment,  ii.  214 

Education,  i.  50,  370; 
ii.  33,  127,  145,  197, 
224 

England,  aggressive  pol- 
icy, i.  292  seq.,  380, 
411  seq. 

Ethics  and  evolution,  ii. 
35 

Franchise,  i.  53,  121,  180 


Free  libraries,  ii.  126 


Cont'd. 

French,  i.   112,  205;   ii. 

121 

Gambling,  ii.  23 
Hegelianism,  ii.  202 
Hell,  ii.  60 
Home  Rule,  i.  329,  401; 

ii.  7,  20 
Humanity,  i.  403;  ii.  34, 

77 

Imperialism,  ii.  24 
Japanese   affairs,    ii.    11 

seq. 
Justice,    administration, 

i.  322;  ii.  68 
Laissez-faire,  i.  212 
Landlords,  i.  390,  406 
Land  question,  i.  330;  ii. 

26  seq.,  38  seq. 
Liberty,  i.  402  seq.;  ii. 

61 

Libraries,  free,  ii.  126 
Licensing  reform,  ii.  152 
Living  wage,  ii.  60 
Marriage,  i.  101,  396 
Medical      profession,     i. 

125,  202 
Military,  i.  70,  292  seq.; 

ii.  136   (see  England) 
Music,  ii.  137 
Napoleon,  Louis,  i.  112 
Natural  selection,  ii.  49 
Nature,      non-moral,      i. 

374 

Nurses,  ii.  7 
Old  age,  ii.  217,  219  seq. 
Parents,      responsibility, 

i.  406 
Paris,  i.  99 

Peace  Society,  i.  294,  298 
Poetry,  i.  411;  ii.  137 
Politics,    i.    36   seq.,   47, 

52,    62,    70,   298,    320, 

322  seq.,  330,  411;   ii. 

61,  153  seq. 


434 


INDEX 


Spencer,  H. :  Opinions — Cont'd. 
Poor  Laws,  i.  213 
Press,  i.  275,  402 
Punch,  i.  231 
Races,  mixture  of,  ii.  16 
Railway  nuisances,  ii.  5 
Relaxation,  i.  307,  347 
Religion,   i.   23   seq.,   63, 

70,  78,  104,  335  seq.; 

ii.  63,  85 
Rousseau,  ii.  213 
Ruskin,  ii.  127 
Sanitation,  i.  97 
Scotchmen,    i.    87 
Scotch  scenery,  i.  94,  247 
Social    State,    Socialism, 

etc.,  i.   135,  202,  213, 

317,  325,  331,  368  seq., 

375,  400;  ii.  6,  20,  59, 

68,    77    seq.,    79,    126, 

137,     149,     152,     197, 

216 
South   African   War,   ii. 

151    seq. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  ii.  198 
Supernaturalism,  ii.  85 
Swiss  scenery,  i.  94 
Taxation,  i.  123 
Testimonials,  i.  378;   ii. 

20 
Testimony,    unreliability 

of,  ii.  63 
Titles,   i.    201    seq.,   311 

seq. 
Trade-Unionism,    ii.    34, 

42 

Uniformity,  ii.  127 
Vaccination,   i.   370,  405 
Ventilation,  i.  405 
Wealth,  i.  407;   ii.   148; 

wealthy,  ii.  67 
Women,  i.  376,  395;    ii. 

129 
V.    Recreations :  generally, 

i.    316,    319;     ii.     25, 

268;   billiards,  i.  286, 


Spencer,  Herbert :  Recreations 
—Cont'd. 

291,  316,  398;  ii.  254, 
302;  chess,  i.  121;  fic- 
tion, i.  14;  ii.  268; 
fishing,  i.  20,  106,  112, 
161,  227,  318,  329;  ii. 
220;  quoits,  i.  20,  316, 
318;  skating,  i.  20;  ii. 
268;  whist,  ii.  268 
(see  also  i.  20,  21,  103, 
103  seq.) 
Spencer,  John,  Spencer's  uncle, 

i.  5,  414;  ii.  188 
Spencer,     Matthew,     Spencer's 

grandfather,  i.  3  seq.,  14 
Spencer,     Thomas,     of     Kirk- 
Ireton,  Spencer's  ancestor, 
i.  3 

Spencer,  Rev.  Thomas,  M.A., 
Spencer's  uncle :  influence 
on  Spencer,  i.  5,  21,  46; 
financed  by  Spencer's  fa- 
ther, i.  5;  takes  charge  of 
Spencer's  education,  i.  16; 
encourages  his  political  ac- 
tivity, i.  46  (v.  i.  42);  in- 
troduces him  to  Mr.  Hey- 
worth,  i.  60;  business  ad- 
vice to  Spencer,  i.  61 ; 
pamphlets,  i.  69;  editor 
of  National  Temperance 
Chronicle,  i.  89;  death,  ib.; 
Spencer's  obituary  notice, 
ib.  seq.;  founder  of  library 
at  Hinton,  i.  373.  Letters 
to,  i.  19,  72.  Letter  from, 
i.  21 
Spencer,  Mrs.  Thos.  (see  ante, 

Anna  Spencer) 
Spencer,     William,     of     Kirk- 

Ireton,   i.   3 

Spencer,  William,  Spencer's 
uncle  and  teacher:  i.  5,  12, 
27,  82,  133.  Letter  to,  i. 


435 


INDEX 


Spencer,  William  George  (com- 
monly called  George), 
Spencer's  father :  assists 
his  father  as  teacher,  i.  4; 
characteristics,  i.  5  seq., 
27,  59,  175;  ii.  306 
seq.;  religious  attitude  de- 
scribed, i.  7;  marital  re- 
lation, i.  8;  lace-making 
speculation,  i.  10;  remi- 
niscences, i.  13  seq.;  dis- 
tress at  Spencer's  be- 
haviour at  Hinton,  i.  17, 
22;  solicitude  for  Spencer's 
spiritual  welfare,  i.  23 
seq.,  36  (cf.  i.  104);  re- 
lieves Spencer  in  his  pe- 
cuniary straits,  i.  56  seq.; 
system  of  shorthand,  i.  59 ; 
ii.  305;  on  Spencer's  use 
of  theological  language,  i. 
78;  death,  i.  170,  173; 
Spencer's  relations  with, 
ib.  seq.;  ii.  156.  Letters 
to :  "a  pair  of  clothes," 
i.  20;  application  to  stud- 
ies, i.  22;  religious  feel- 
ings, i.  23;  first  essays  in 
journalism,  i.  25  seq.;  pro- 
jection of  shadows,  i.  30; 
engineering  activities,  i. 
31 ;  mental  progress,  i.  34 
seq. ;  journalistic  enter- 
prises, i.  49  seq.;  Anti- 
State-Church  address,  i. 
54;  Punch  and  Pope's 
Homer,  i.  55;  financial  em- 
barrassment, i.  56  seq.;  in- 
ventions, i.  66;  Lord  John 
Russell,  i.  70;  style,  i.  71; 
The  Standard  of  Freedom, 
i.  72  seq.;  Social  Statics, 
i.  74,  79;  an  excursion 
with  Lewes,  i.  82;  Popu- 
lation article,  i.  83  seq.; 
"  Development  Hypothe- 


sis," i.  86;  essay  on  Style, 
i.  86;  Rev.  T.  Spencer,  i. 
90;  more  articles,  ib.;  con- 
tinental impressions,  i.  93 
seq.;  Psychology,  i.  100; 
breakdown,  i.  102;  opin- 
ions of  Psychology,  i.  105; 
Mill's  Logic,  i.  106;  Hux- 
ley's and  Tyndall's  lec- 
tures, i.  108;  Anglo-French 
relations,  i.  Ill  seq.;  holi- 
day and  social  movements, 
i.  123  seq.;  programme  of 
Philosophy,  i.  126;  writing 
First  Principles,  i.  130; 
reviews  of  it,  i.  137;  social 
engagements,  i.  142  seq.; 
cordial  treatment  at  Ard- 
tornish,  i.  152;  progress 
with  work,  i.  162  seq.; 
New  Year's  dinner  at  Hux- 
ley's, ib.;  John  S.  Mill's 
generosity,  i.  165;  advice, 
expostulation,  and  en- 
treaty, i.  175;  Nebular 
hypothesis,  ii.  157.  Let- 
ters from,  i.  17,  19,  75 
Spencer,  Mrs.  W.  G.  (nee  Har- 
riet Holmes),  Spencer's 
mother:  general  character- 
isation, i.  7  seq.  (v.  i.  81), 
174;  influence  on  Spencer, 
i.  21;  objects  to  Spencer 
mentioning  Voltaire,  i.  75; 
death,  i.  173;  Spencer's  re- 
lations, ib.  seq.  Letters 
to,  i.  51,  88,  103,  107,  120, 
176 

Spencer,  Mr.,  aeronaut,  ii.  222 
Spielmann,   Mr.,   ii.   209 
Spontaneous  generation,  i.   190 

seq. 
Spooner,   Rev.   W.  A.,   Oxford, 

ii.  241 

Spottiswoode,  William,  P.R.S., 
i.  257 


436 


INDEX 


Spurzheim,  Dr.:  lectures  on 
phrenology,  i.  14;  ii.  310 

Standard,  The:  i.  309,  404;  ii. 
72,  374  seq.;  Harrison- 
Spencer  controversy,  i. 
242,  351  seq.;  outline  of 
Spencer's  work,  ii.  2; 
Spencer's  letter  declining 
nomination  as  Alderman  of 
L.  C.  C.,  ii.  5 

Standard  of  Freedom,  i.  72  seq.; 
ii.  369 

Standish  House,  Gloucester- 
shire, i.  257,  316 

Stannard,  Mrs.  Arthur,  letter 
to,  on  religious  view  in 
Soul  of  a  Bishop,  ii.  59 
seq. 

Stanley,  Arthur  P.,  Dean  of 
Westminster,  i.  284,  285 

Stanley,  of  Alderley,  Dowager 
Lady,  i.  405 

Stephen,  Sir  James  Fitz-James, 
i.  340 

Stephen,  Sir  Leslie:  ii.  97,  102; 
relations  with  his  father, 
i.  23;  Ethical  Lecturers' 
Fund,  ii.  144  seq.,  197. 
Letter  to,  ii.  145  seq.  Let- 
ter from,  ii.  145  seq. 

Stevenson,     Robert     Louis,     ii. 


Steyn,  M.  J.,  Ex-President, 
Orange  Free  State,  testimo- 
nial and  letter  to,  ii.  209 
seq.,  226 

Steyn,  Mrs.,  letter  from,  ii.  226 

Stourbridge,  settlement  of  emi- 
grants at,  i.  1 

Stout,  G.  F.,  ii.  102 

Strutt,  Edward,  M.P.  for 
Derby,  i.  47 

Study  of  Sociology:  i.  211  seq., 
276,  280,  285,  397;  ii.  66, 
121,  133,  304,  354;  criticism 
of  W.  E.  Gladstone,  i.  214 


seq.;  popularity  of,  i.  229; 
objected  to  as  text-book  for 
Yale,  i.  276;  evolutionary 
conceptions,  ii.  352 

Sturge,  Joseph,  i.  47,  61 

Style:  Lord  Macaulay's,  i.  79; 
evolution,  ii.  319  (see 
"Philosophy  of  Style") 

Sully,  Prof.  James:  cooperates 
in  testimonial  to  Spencer, 
ii.  97,  102,  107.  Letter  to, 
ii.  107,  151 

Sumner,  Charles,  i.  131   * 

Sumner,  Prof.,  Yale  College,  i. 
276 

Sun:  Spencer's  article  on  con- 
stitution of,  ii.  165  seq., 
341;  question  of  age,  ii. 
166;  photosphere,  ii.  183 

Sunday  Society,  i.  329 

Supernatural,  coincidences  fa- 
vouring belief  in,  ii.  85 

Survival  of  the  Fittest:  in  so- 
cial evolution,  ii.  76,  314; 
in  the  inorganic  world,  ii. 
171;  the  term,  ii.  340 

Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles, 
letter  to,  i.  292 

Switzerland,  Spencer's  impres- 
sion of,  i.  94 

Symes,  Principal  J.  E.,  ii.  241 

Sympathy:  genesis,  ii.  310; 
Adam  Smith's  theory,  ib.; 
root  of  justice  and  benefi- 
cence, ii.  314;  in  social 
evolution,  ii.  365 

Synthetic'  Philosophy:  this 
work  not  an  exposition 
of,  viii.;  scheme  for,  i.  110; 
ii.  329,  346;  distribution 
of  programme  and  opinions 
thereon,  i.  126;  in  rela- 
tion to  Comte's  philosophy 
(see  Comte)  ;  Gazelles'  in- 
troduction, i.  202  seq.; 
title  and  reasons  for  it,  i. 


437 


INDEX 


206  seq.,  226;  nature  and 
origin  of,  i.  342,  343  seq.; 
Mr.  A.  J.  Balfour's  criti- 
cism, ii.  46;  completion, 
ii.  95;  letter  of  congratu- 
lation, ii.  96  seq.;  finish- 
ing touches,  ii.  150  seq.; 
unwritten  divisions,  ii.  156 
seq.,  300;  Clerk  Maxwell 
on  scheme,  ii.  161;  "The 
Unknowable "  in  First 
Principles,  ii.  211;  deduct- 
ive and  inductive  methods 
considered,  ii.  277  seq.; 
Hector  Macpherson  on  its 
dualistic  character,  ii.  286; 
congruity  with  scientific 
progress,  ii.  288  seq. ;  Spen- 
cer's condition  when  writ- 
ing, ii.  300;  omitted  divi- 
sions not  essential,  ib.; 
"Filiation  of  Ideas"  (Ap- 
pendix B),  a  sketch  plan, 
ii.  304 

TABLET,  The:  approval  of  arti- 
cle by  Spencer,  i.  319 

Tag,  Der  (Berlin  newspaper), 
ii.  225 

Taine,  H.:  Ideal  in  Art,  i.  198; 
nervous  sensation,  ii.  347 
note 

Tait,  Prof.  P.  G.,  Spencer's  con- 
troversy with,  i.  219,  280 
seq. 

Tait's  Magazine,  rejects  article 
by  Spencer,  i.  50,  51,  57, 
86 

Talent,  as  a  condition  to  suc- 
cess, i.  51 

Tappan  [H.  P.],  French  Acad- 
emy, i.  310 

Taxation,  universal  direct,  ad- 
vocated, i.  123  seq. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  i.  131 

Taylor,  Miss  Helen,  i.  180 


Taylor,  Peter  A.,  M.P.,  i.  319 

Teaching  (see  Education) 

Tedder,  Henry  R.,  Secretary 
and  Librarian,  Athenaeum 
Club:  x.,  i.  308;  general 
editor  of  Descriptive  Soci- 
ology, ii.  196  note 

Tenniel,  Sir  John,  Punch  ear- 
toon,  i.  386 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  poet 
laureate :  "  Hands  all 
Round,"  i.  295;  peerage,  i. 
322;  civil  list  pension,  i. 
387  seq.;  "Farewell,"  i. 
412;  "The  Larger  Hope," 
ii.  84.  Letter  to,  i.  101 

Testimonials :  grave  social 
abuse,  i.  378 

Testimony,  untrustworthiness 
of  human,  i.  397;  ii.  63 
seq.,  84  seq. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  Spencer's 
favourite  novelist,  ii.  266 

Thames,  Spencer's  suggestion 
for  improving,  i.  82 

"Theory  of  Population,"  i.  83 
seq.,  127;  ii.  317  seq.,  369; 
doctrine  of  selection,  i.  128 

Thiselton-Dyer,  Sir  W.  T.,  ii. 
51,  102 

Thompson,  Sir  E.  Maunde,  let- 
ter to,  on  British  Academy 
of  Letters,  ii.  199 

Thompson,  Sir  Henry,  Bart.,  i. 
256,  286 

Thomson,  Sir  Wm.  (Lord  Kel- 
vin, q.v.) 

Ticknor,  George,  i.  131 

Times,  The:  letters  by  Spencer 
on  sundry  topics,  i.  88, 
329;  ii.  67,  88  (see  i.  322; 
ii.  369,  376  seq. ) ;  foreign 
reports  concerning  Spen- 
cer, i.  169,  265;  article  on 
Virchow's  address,  i.  260 
seq.;  report  of  Church  Con- 


438 


INDEX 


gress,  Swansea,  i.  268; 
Anti-Aggression  League,  i. 
295;  Spencer's  refusal  to 
stand  for  Leicester,  i.  322; 
Harrison-Spencer  contro- 
versy, i.  342,  350  seq.,  355 
seq.  (v.  ii.  376  seq.)  ;  Spen- 
cer's advice  to  Japan,  ii. 
18;  controversy  on  land 
question,  ii.  26  seq.  (v.  ii. 
377 )  ;  Bookselling  Question, 
ii.  70  (v.  ii.  369,  378)  ; 
Metric  System,  ii.  94,  140, 
379;  F.  H.  Collins's  pro- 
posal for  portrait  of  Spen- 
cer, ii.  86,  87,  379;  testi- 
monial to  Spencer,  ii.  97; 
criticism  of  Herkomer's 
portrait,  ii.  Ill,  380; 
Bramwell  Booth's  attack, 
ii.  119,  379;  R.  Buchan- 
an's letter,  ii.  136;  remark 
concerning  fate  of  Russian 
statesman,  ii.  191  note; 
life  of  Stevenson,  ii.  198; 
Spencer's  last  book,  ii. 
205 ;  report  of  Russian  stu- 
dent's arrest,  ii.  205 ;  Spen- 
cer's daily  reading,  ii. 
267;  on  Spencer's  career, 
ii.  276 

Titles:  Spencer's  reasons  for 
refusing  various  kinds,  i. 
201,  222  seq.,  241  seq.,  311 
seq.,  389;  ii.  80,  215  (see 
Appendix  D),  382 

T.  P.'s  Weekly,  i.  398 

Trade-Unionist:  hostility  to 
employers,  ii.  42 

"  Transverse  Strain  of  Beams," 
i.  43;  ii.  368 

Trelawney,  Sir  J.,  i.  124 

Trgport,  i.  98,  102,  130  seq. 

Tribune,  New  York  newspaper, 
i.  276;  ii.  41,  44,  374 

Trough  ton,    Walter,    Spencer's 


secretary,  1888-1903:  ix., 
469;  reminiscences,  i.  383, 
386;  ii.  95,  189,  207,  212, 
217,  227,  250,  267  seq.,  269, 
271,  302;  Spencer's  Last 
Words,  ii.  227 

Truth,  ultimate  test  of,  i.  156 
seq. 

Tunbridge  Wells  Hydro,  i.  302 

Tupper,  Sir  Charles,  Canadian 
Copyright,  ii.  89 

Turner,  Sir  William,  Edinburgh 
University,  ii.  242 

Twilight  Club,  New  York,  i. 
307 

Tylor,  Dr.  E.  B.:  i.  252,  317; 
ii.  63,  134,  353,  374;  cor- 
respondence concerning  con- 
troversy, ii.  193  seq. 

Tyndall,  Prof.  John:  friendship 
with  Spencer  begun,  i.  85; 
testimonial  to  Spencer,  i. 
118;  view  of  equilibration, 
i.  135  (v.  ii.  335);  meet- 
ings with,  i.  142,  187,  408, 
410  (v.  ii.  141);  attitude 
to  Comtism,  i.  148;  reor- 
ganising Reader,  i.  153; 
consulted  by  Spencer,  i. 
172,  188,  190,  337  seq.;  ii. 
157  seq.,  173;  infectious 
vivacity,  i.  192;  Interna- 
tional Scientific  Series,  i. 
210,  248;  Tait  controversy, 
i.  219;  resents  attack  on 
men  of  science,  i.  220; 
British  Association  ad- 
dress, i.  228,  231;  criti- 
cism of  First  Principles, 
i.  232;  ii.  161;  marriage, 
i.  241,  297;  George  Eliot, 
i.  285,  356  seq.;  health,  i. 
364,  408  seq.;  Huxley,  v. 
Spencer  controversy,  ii.  29 
seq. ;  Weismann  contro- 
versy, ii.  51;  death,  ii.  62; 


439 


INDEX 


age  of  the  earth,  ii.  174;      VACCINATION,  i.  405 


on  Spencer's  character,  ii. 
274.  Letters  to:  equilibra- 
tion, i.  135  (see  ii.  335); 
plagiarisms  of  psycholo- 
gists, i.  188  seq.;  physical 
conceptions  in  First  Princi- 
ples, i.  232;  his  marriage, 
i.  241;  Times  leading  ar- 
ticle, i.  260;  personal,  i. 
386,  396,  408  seq.;  ii.  21; 
political  and  social  tend- 
encies, ii.  20;  the  Huxley 
affair,  ii.  31.  Letter  from: 
Huxley,  ii.  29;  on  Spen- 
cer's physical  ideas,  ii.  160 
Tyndall,  Mrs.:  letters  to,  ii.  62, 
75,  78  seq.,  82;  letter  from, 
ii.  81 

"ULTIMATE  Laws  of  Physiol- 
ogy," ii.  326,  371 

"  Ultimate  Questions  " :  essay 
in  Spencer's  last  book,  ii. 
189,  205 

Uniformity,  mania  for  con- 
demned, ii.  127 

United  Service  Club,  i.  398 

United  States  (see  America) 

"  Universal  Postulate,"  i.  90 
seq.,  95,  106;  ii.  319, 
370 

Universal  Review,  ii.   157 

Universities,  standard  of  edu- 
cation, ii.  145 

Unknowable:  i.  324;  relation 
to  knowable  inexplicable, 
ii.  125 

"Use  and  Beauty,"  i.  85;  ii. 
369 

Use-Inheritance  (see  Heredity) 

"  Use  of  Anthropomorphism," 
i.  96;  ii.  370 

Utilitarianism:  Spencer's  atti- 
tude, i.  141  seq.  (v.  ii. 
287) 


Vambe-ry,  A.,  i.  279 

Vanity  Fair:  caricature  of 
Spencer,  i.  262 

Varigny,  H.  de,  French  trans- 
lator, ii.  122 

Various  Fragments,  i.  316;  ii. 
206,  375  seq. 

Vedanta:  its  teachings  alleged 
to  have  influenced  Spencer, 
ii.  120 

Vegetarianism,  i.  81 

Velocimeter :  appliance  in- 
vented by  Spencer,  i.  32, 
44;  ii.  308,  368 

Venice,  i.  274 

Venn,  Dr.  John,  ii.  102 

Ventilation  of  dwelling  houses, 
i.  405 

Vertebrate  skeleton :  Spencer's 
attack  on  Owen's  doctrine, 
i.  112 

Vesey,  Lord  and  Lady,  i. 
263 

Vestiges  of  the  Natural  His- 
tory of  Creation,  i.  69;  ii. 
315 

Vesuvius:  eruption  of  1868,  ii. 
175 

Vetter,  Dr.  B.,  German  trans- 
lator, i.  359;  ii.  66 

Vienna,  Imperial  Academy,  ii. 
80  seq.,  383 

Vincent,  Henry,  i.   47 

Vines,  Prof.  S.  H.,  ii.  102 

Vitalism,  i.  190;  ii.  119  (see 
Life) 

Volcanic  eruptions,  Spencer's 
speculations  concerning,  ii. 
175  seq. 

Voltaire :  Spencer  suppresses 
his  name,  i.  75 

Voluntary  system,  Spencer 
dissociates  himself  from 
ethics  of,  i.  77 

Voluntary  taxation,  i.  402  seq. 


440 


INDEX 


WADE,  SIK  WILLOUGHBY,  ii.  102 

Wales,  Prince  of  (King Edward 
VII. ) ,  ridiculous  statement 
concerning,  ii.  141 

Wales,  Prince  and  Princess  of: 
London  University  degrees, 
ii.  214 

Walker,  J.  Hanson,  ii.  113 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel:  ii. 
102;  opinion  of  Spencer's 
biological  writings,  i.  200; 
Spencer's  ethics,  i.  265; 
Land  Nationalisation  So- 
ciety, i.  290;  Weismann 
controversy,  ii.  52.  Let- 
ter to,  ii.  73 

Waller,  i.  255 

Walshe,  Walter  H.,  i.  256 

War:  in  social  evolution,  i. 
375;  ii.  77,  355  seq. 

Ward,  Prof.  James:  ii.  242; 
controversy  with,  ii.  184, 
385 

Ward,  Lester  F.:  biological 
basis  of  Spencer's  sociol- 
ogy, ii.  357  note.  Letter 
to,  on  Spencer's  relations 
to  Comte,  ii.  90  seq. 

Ward,  Wilfred,  i.  340 

Water  Question,  article  by 
Spencer  on,  i.  82;  ii.  369 

Watkins,  Rev.  Prof.:  appre- 
ciation of  Spencer,  i. 
269 

Watson,  Prof.,  i.  303  seq. 

Watson,  William,  ii.  136 

Watts,  George  F.,  R.A.,  ii. 
86 

Watts,  Isaac,  Divine  and  Moral 
Songs:  Spencer's  text-book 
as  a  child,  9 

Wealth :  distribution  during 
life  approved,  i.  407 

Wealthy,  lack  of  initiative,  ii. 
67 

Webb,  Sidney,  ii.  69 


Webb,  Mrs.  Sidney  (nee  Bea- 
trice Potter):  ii.  102;  last 
visit  to  Spencer,  ii.  227. 
Letters  to :  "  game-cure," 
i.  316;  social  pathology,  i. 
368;  proposed  portrait,  i. 
378;  billiard  story,  i.  398; 
agnostics  and  believers,  ii. 
200;  thoughts  in  illness, 
ii.  219 

Weismann,  Prof.  A.:  contro- 
versy respecting  inherit- 
ance of  acquired  charac- 
ters, ii.  45  seq. 

Welby,  Lady  Victoria,  ii.   102 

Wells,  H.  T.,  R.A.,  ii.  87 

Wemyss,  Earl  of,  ii.  9.  Letters 
to:  reasons  for  not  joining 
Liberty  and  Property  De- 
fence League,  i.  323;  anti- 
socialist  movement,  i.  400 
seq. ;  railway  nuisances, 
ii.  5;  English  stupidity, 
ib. 

Werner,  E.  T.  C.:  i.  394;  com- 
piler of  Chinese  Descrip- 
tive Sociology,  i.  394 

Wesley,  John:  letter  quoted, 
i.  2;  converts  Spencer's 
grandmother,  i.  4 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  associa- 
tions of  Spencer's  family 
with,  i.  2,  4,  7 

Westerham,  Kent,  ii.  82 

Westmacott,  Mr.  [son  of  Sculp- 
tor], i.  326 

Westminster  Abbey:  i.  285 
seq.;  movement  for  memo- 
rial to  Spencer  in,  ii.  237 
•eg. 

Westminster  Review:  Spencer's 
contributions  to,  i.  83,  86 
seq.,  108  seq.,  125;  ii.  323, 
369  seq.;  review  of  Spen- 
cer's First  Principles,  i. 
137 


441 


INDEX 


"What  is  Electricity,"  i.  153; 
ii.  160,  164,  341,  372 

Wheatley,  Mr.,   i.   262 

Whewell,  William :  History 
and  Philosophy  of  the 
Inductive  Sciences,  ii. 
282;  Mill's  criticism,  ii. 
319 

Whipple,  E.  P.,  i.  131 

Williams,  Geoffrey  S.,  ii.  238 

Williams,  Mr.  [Sidney],  i. 
303 

Williams  and  Norgate  (Spen- 
cer's publishers),  i.  165 

Williamson,  Dr.,  ii.  173 

Wilks,  Dr.  Samuel,  ii.  102 

Wilson,  Rev.  Dr.  James,  editor 
of  Pilot,  i.  62,  384 

Wilson,  James,  M.P.,  of  the 
Economist,  i.  62,  73, 
120 

Women:  suffrage  question,  i. 
180  seq.;  outcry  against 
wrongs  of,  i.  376;  intellec- 
tual powers,  i.  395  seq.; 
over  -  exaltation  of,  ii. 
129 

Worcester,  i.  29;    ii.  309 

Working  classes :  political 
power,  i.  122 

Workman's  Peace  Association, 
i.  297 

Wright,  Prof.  W.  Aldis,  ii. 
242 

Wright-Henderson,  Rev.  P.  A., 
Oxford,  ii.  242 

Wroughton,  Mr.,  i.  273 

Wylde,  Rev.  M.,  i.  269  seq. 

Wyman,  Jeffries,  i.  131,  198 

X  CLUB,  i.  223,  256,  332  seq., 
377;  ii.  23,  29  seq.,  199, 
219 


YALE  COLLEGE,  i.  276 
Youmans,  Edward  Livingston: 


introduction  to  Spencer,  i. 
128;  personal  intercourse, 
i.  136,  170,  260  seq.,  290; 
Civil  War,  i.  139  seq.; 
watches  Spencer's  interests 
in  America,  i.  143  seq.,  217 
seq.,  230,  275,  371;  raises 
fund  to  recoup  Spencer's 
losses,  i.  167;  amanuensis 
to  Spencer,  i.  170;  Spen- 
cer's drastic  criticism  of 
lectures,  i.  171;  organises 
Int.  Scientific  Series,  i. 
210,  248;  founder  and  edi- 
tor of  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  i.  211,  230;  lec- 
ture on  Spencer,  i.  227; 
introduction  to  Spencer's 
Data  of  Ethics,  i.  263,  267 ; 
Spencer's  obligations  to,  i. 
290,  336  (see  i.  315); 
Spencer's  American  visit, 
i.  301 ;  conscientiousness, 
i.  367;  Spencer's  apprecia- 
tion, i.  366,  271;  ii.  88; 
death,  ii.  370;  Fiske's 
memoirs,  ii.  64;  interest  in 
Spencer  recalled,  ii.  94. 
Letters  to:  Civil  War,  i. 
139  seq.;  publishing  af- 
fairs, i.  144  seq.;  change 
of  views  in  Social  Statics, 
i.  145  seq.;  Comtism,  i. 
148;  Count  Stirum's  dona- 
tion, i.  166;  holiday  sight- 
seeing, i.  171  seq.;  First 
Principles,  i.  172;  sponta- 
neous generation,  i.  191; 
progress  with  the  Philoso- 
phy, a  forecast,  i.  193  seq.; 
Hutton  controversy,  i.  195; 
Darwin  and  mental  evolu- 
tion, i.  197;  Fiske's  Har- 
vard lectures  on  "  Posi- 
tive"  philosophy,  i.  206 
seq.;  making  a  fortune  by 


442 


INDEX 


philosophy,  i.  211;  an  op- 
portunity for  advertise- 
ment rejected,  i.  213  seq.; 
Descriptive  Sociology  wor- 
ries, i.  217  seq.;  Huxley's 
condition,  i.  219;  author 
and  publisher,  i.  220;  a 
tilt  with  Tyndall,  ib.;  lec- 
ture at  Liberal  Club,  i. 
226;  Tyndall's  Belfast  ad- 
dress and  its  effect,  i.  228 
seq.;  scheme  for  financial 
assistance,  i.  230;  Popular 
Science  Monthly  policy,  i. 
231;  Bain  and  evolution, 
Romanes,  i.  240;  Dr. 
Elam's  attack,  i.  249  seq.; 
conversation  with  a  bishop, 
i.  250;  copyright,  i.  251, 
278;  Tylor  and  McLennan, 
i.  252;  Data  of  Ethics,  i. 
257 ;  holiday  companion- 
ship invited,  i.  266; 
"  devil-may-care  "  mood 
enjoined,  i.  263;  French 
clerical  party,  i.  265;  re- 
views of  Data  of  Ethics,  i. 
267;  Mr.  Guthrie's  mis- 
representations, ib.;  re- 
viewers' misconceptions 
about  First  Principles,  i. 
268;  visit  to  Egypt,  i. 
271;  Grant  Allen  and 
Critics ;  professorship  of 
sociology,  etc.,  i.  280; 
civilities  with  an  old  an- 
tagonist, i.  281;  sundry 
critics,  i.  282  seq.,  289; 
hardest  bit  of  work  fin- 
ished, i.  296 ;  the  American 
visit,  i.  300;  Hughlings 
Jackson's  researches,  i. 
302;  Henry  George,  i.  305; 
"  gospel  of  relaxation,"  i. 
307;  a  Japanese  transla- 
tion, revision  of  Essays,  i. 


308 ;  Drummond's  book, 
election  to  French  Acad- 
emy, i.  309  seq.;  Darwin- 
ism, i.  316,  317;  Tylor,  i. 
317;  Communism,  ib.; 
Edinburgh  Review's  criti- 
cism, i.  318;  political  arti- 
cles, i.  319,  334;  proposed 
parliamentary  candidature, 
i.  322;  Pall  Mall  Gazette's 
couplet,  i.  326;  Boehm's 
bust,  ib.;  permanent  work 
resumed,  ib.;  personal  in- 
quiries, i.  327;  Irish  Ob- 
struction, i.  330;  friends 
breaking  up,  i.  332;  a 
"  dreadfully  destructive  " 
chapter  in  "  Ecclesiastical 
Institutions,"  i.  335;  "Re- 
ligious Retrospect  and 
Prospect,"  i.  337  seq.;  Har- 
rison's controversy,  i.  339 
seq.;  Autobiography,  i. 
343;  reprinting  the  Harri- 
son controversy,  i.  347 
seq.;  relations  with  George 
Eliot,  i.  357 ;  "  Factors  of 
Organic  Evolution,"  i.  359, 
362 ;  International  copy- 
right, i.  363;  consolation 
in  illness,  i.  366;  a  last 
greeting,  i.  370;  "What  is 
Electricity,"  ii.  160;  nebu- 
lar hypothesis,  ii.  164,  172. 
Also  i.  162,  164,  275.  Let- 
ters from:  publishing  af- 
fairs, i.  133,  143  seq.; 
Civil  War,  i.  138  seq.,  277 ; 
Social  Statics,  i.  145  seq.; 
Abbot  controversy,  i.  190 
seq.;  a  "little  thrust" 
from  the  Nation,  i.  198; 
false  report  of  Bain's 
death,  i.  251;  Har- 
rison's controversy,  i. 
345  seq.,  348;  Spencer's 


443 


INDEX 


tribute    in   Autobiography, 

i.  366 
Youmans,  Miss   Eliza,   i.   370; 

ii.  64.  Letters  from,  i:371, 

392;  ii.  94 
Youmans,  Dr.  W.  J.,  i.  392;  ii. 

44,  194 


Young,    Prof.:    ideas   of    Sun's 

constitution,  ii.   164 
Young  Scots  Society,  ii.  217 

ZOIST,     THE     (phrenological), 
magazine,  i.  52,  58;  ii.  310, 


444 


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